On those grounds, I recommend
Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera not only for Rockwell fans, but for anyone interested in art.
Says Laurie Norton Moffatt, director of the
Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, "The ideals in his work are timeless, and they resonate deeply.
A 'splash' destined to disturb the hearts and minds of the American public, destined to create an ever widening circle of interest." It is too bad, he continued, that "we may never know where the undulation of human interest [in the Four Freedoms] ceases, as it is absorbed in the steady current of American living, but the current has been quickened" by
Norman Rockwell's "outstanding contribution to the War effort" (Dulcan 1943, 1).
In studying the mass society theorists of the late 1940s and through the 1950s, the connection to the work of
Norman Rockwell is evident, and I will show how mass society theories align with his mass-produced perceptions of reality.
But he receives a fascinating rethinking in Deborah Solomon's American Mirror: The Life and Art of
Norman Rockwell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), in which she makes a clear case for his homoerotic desires.
"Just as millions of readers in the 20th century were introduced to the world of art courtesy of
Norman Rockwell, that tradition continues today thanks to Ross' beautifully painted illustrations, which combine photographic realism and imaginative storytelling," says Laurie Norton Moffatt, director and CEO of the
Norman Rockwell Museum.
The show will feature several original works from
Norman Rockwell, James Bama, Robert McGinnis, J.C.
In their eyes we were a
Norman Rockwell family in a Hallmark movie.
See
Norman Rockwell's "Santa and the Globe" at the Portland Art Museum through Jan.
THE ILLUSTRATOR
Norman Rockwell's rehabilitation as a painter can be dated to the fin de siecle retrospective that originated at Atlanta's High Museum of Art in November 1999 and toured the US (Chicago; Washington, DC; San Diego; Phoenix; and the
Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts) for two years before triumphantly occupying the grand ramp of the Solomon R.
Norman Rockwell is said to have once remarked, "If I hadn't become a painter, I would have liked to become a movie director."
In Search of
Norman Rockwell's America is a groundbreaking exhibition that pairs the work of American icon
Norman Rockwell with images by award-winning photojournalist Kevin Rivoli.