Posted on 02/03/2010 2:36:11 AM PST by iowamark
If a picture is a thousand words, Norman Rockwell wrote the Encyclopedia Americana of the Twentieth Century. His covers of the Saturday Evening Post filled American homes for 323 covers spanning fifty years according to the Norman Rockwell Museum. His work didn't end there. Other magazines and snippets of Americana crept into our living rooms on a periodic basis from World War I up until the time of his death in 1978.
Born on February 3, 1894, Norman Rockwell showed an aptitude for art at a young age. At age 14, he enrolled in the Chase Art School and did many drawings for magazines at the time before becoming the official artist for Boy's Life Magazine when it was first published in 1913. From that moment on, Rockwell's work became a part of American life as much as paying taxes and voting. His work went beyond the Saturday Evening Post, which he left in 1963, to pursue other magazines and covers.
Rockwell's effort for World War II came from his service to his country when he enlisted in the Navy for World War I and was an official artist for the military. His paintings also said many things as to the current social commentary during his life including poverty, injustice, civil rights, war, and everything that was American. From football to turkey to patriotism, no subject went unnoticed by the keen eye of Rockwell. Every month, families expected a Rockwell to grace the cover of the Saturday Evening Post...
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the hippies saw Norman Rockwell’s paintings.... and had to destroy the America they depicted
especially after i saw this:
"The United States was always the last resort for hope for all other nations. There was the hope, that whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today we lost that hope."
-- Lech Walesa in illinios interview (via Beck)
with that statement, for the first time, i was heart sick... for the world.
There MAY be some bashers in this crowd regarding his politics, but I remember Boys Life as a boy, and about 40% of what I saw from Rockwell reflected my life with about 60% programming my idea of America.
I take a lot of heat from many freepers (sometimes good-natured, sometimes not) for living in Massachusetts, but I must say...one of the BEST things about living here is only being an hour away from the Norman Rockwell Museum.
For a long time in my life, I ‘liked’ his paintings in a quaint, distracted kind of way. They were part of the fabric of American life. You see his work in stores, on plates, on posters, in magazines, and so on.
But when I went to the museum for the first time and saw his work up close and live...I was astounded. Seeing his work live is NOTHING like seeing it in any other reproduced media.
I cannot explain it, except to say it seemed to take on some other kind of dimension and richness. Just stunning. The precise detail in his works, everything. Nearly everyone I have spoken to who has gone there has the same impression.
I go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and to the Isabella Gardener Musum (famous for the heist where works by Renoir and Vermeer were stolen), so I have seen many works of the masters.
Rockwell has been treated poorly by the world of art. I assure you, his work is as remarkable as the work of the masters. Standing there and viewing it touched me as no Monet, Matisse, Renoir or Van Gogh ever did.
I know I will take heat from some quarters for being a philistine, but...it is MY opinion!
If you ever pass through or visit Massachusetts, I recommend you visit the museum.
I agree. By all accounts, he wasn’t a nice man, and the fact that he was a raging lib probably had something to do with that. But his work was superb.
I had the same response as you did, sten.
It made me feel sick, in the same way I did when the RUSSIAN leadership scolded the USA recently for leaning too socialist.
Hard to believe. The worst thing is...I had to agree with them.
People FEEL things when they see his art.
re: But when I went to the museum for the first time and saw his work up close and live...I was astounded.
Isn’t it amazing how standing in front of the original can change your attitude toward the art? I have always been a Rockwell admirer. Like the other poster I saw his work as a boy in Boy’s Life, although I paid no attention to the artist who had done the work. I grew up in a house where the Saturday Evening Post was standard fare. Again, something in me knew I loved the art work, but I really didn’t put the artist with the work.
Thankfully, that’s changed! I delight in hearing about him or reading about him and his life. There was a documentary recently that showed how he set up the models from which to do the painting. Wow, what a lot of work. Somehow I had always figured he just saw something and then painted it from memory. Silly me!
Certainly not on the same level, but I had the same experience when I visited the Dali Museum for the first time. I was sort of an unwilling attendee the first time, going along as a chaperon for a school trip. Again, wow. The museum guide was able to point out all sorts of things on every single painting that I had never even remotely seen!
I’ve been to that museum and it was a delightful experience. (We stayed at the red lion inn, but I forget the name of the town.)
there is another, smaller Rockwell museum in vermont that i also toured and it was nice, too.
Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA
Norman Rockwell Museum in Rutland Vermont
Thanks.
The one in Vermont must have been way out on the edge of town- Rutland is a developed area, and I remember the museum being in a somewhat rural setting.
Amen....at least what he DREW!!
I don't know what you mean "by all accounts". I have read a couple of biographies that do not paint that picture...no pun intended. Yes, he was afflicted with that common malady of fuzzy minded, uninformed liberalism, but he loved America and its ideals. As for meanness, well I suppose we all have our mean moments, but I did read many accounts of his kindness and generosity with his models and assistants.
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