WaPo Art Critic Slams Norman Rockwell as Lacking 'Courage'

NewsBusters ^ | July 5, 2010 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

Artist Norman Rockwell's thought crime seems to be that he wasn't a kneejerk liberal. And for that, he has earned an angry leftwing rant from Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik who claimed that Rockwell lacked "courage" for not glorifying leftwing causes. Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" series? It disgusts Gopnik because it "doesn't invoke a communist printing his pamphlets or an atheist on a soapbox." So if Gopnik can't stand the popular Norman Rockwell, just what kind of art does he like? You can find out below the fold but a warning: please be sure you are not consuming liquids while viewing an example of Gopnik art or you risk spewing it over your computer monitor when you burst out laughing.

However, before we take a look at Gopniks laughable taste in art, let us join him in mid-rant as he tells us how much he absolutely hates Norman Rockwell:

Norman Rockwell is often championed as the great painter of American virtues. Yet the one virtue most nearly absent from his work is courage. He doesn't challenge any of us, or himself, to think new thoughts or try new acts or look with fresh eyes. From the docile realism of his style to the received ideas of his subjects, Rockwell reliably keeps us right in the middle of our comfort zone.

[cripplecreek]

I didn’t get to the parade this year but I have some pics from last year.

http://s736.photobucket.com/albums/xx2/Snappler_2009/?start=40

[Liberty Valance]

I love this one as well ...

Barber Shop

[ClearCase_guy]

But the Left wants us to regard the Eisenhower years as ones of repression and injustice.

Even here on Free Republic. If you make a comment that things were pretty good in the 1950's, some yahoo is likely to show up and accuse you of defending Jim Crow, hating women who have jobs, and wanting to dump toxic chemicals in every river you can find.

Personally, I'm already on the record: Things were not perfect, but things were pretty good in the 1950's.

[editor-surveyor]

We never locked anything until the mid ‘90s.

Now everything is locked.
.

[anniegetyourgun]

To go with your velvet Elvis? ROFL!

[anniegetyourgun]

Nice tractors! (Wait...that sounds vaguely like something Mr. Gun would say to me...)

[hellbender]

The greatness of Rockwell, like that of America, is lost on the Left. Now and then I ponder the fact that I was born in the greatest nation in the history of mankind at the peak of her power and prosperity. What should be a fitting response to this amazing gift of unmerited grace? To a Christian, there is no such thing as “luck.” The Bible has the answer: from those to whom much is given, much is expected. God blessed our nation because it was the fouuntain of missions which brought the Gospel to millions. Our example brought hope to the suffering people of other countries. Hope that their labors would not be stolen to enrich some aristocracy. Hope that they could worship God in accordance with their own consciences. We still have the power to change the world, not through conquest, “nation-building,” or pursuit of wealth, but through our example. That’s why the Left hates us.

[hellbender]

Where do you live? I’d like to move there. I live in a place far nicer than some I have inhabited, but I would never think of leaving without locking up.

[Liberty Valance]

bttt

[SloopJohnB]

45 Communist goals

I've had this list for years and a constand reminder of where the USA is headed if we don't wake up.

[Dr. Sivana]

Hey, that guy copied ‘Spinal Tap’!

They copied him! Ad Reinhardt died in 1967.

[cripplecreek]

It isn't a great photo but it is one of my favorites for some reason. I'm gussing the boy is marching with grampa.

[ThomasSawyer]

I don’t know that I’ve seen that one before. What a mood that sets!

[cripplecreek]

Believe it or not I live in Michigan not far from the heart of darkness (near Ann Arbor) but I grew up less than 20 miles from Hillsdale.

[Yardstick]

Yeah, but where’s the offal?

[RightOnline]

Well thank you, darlin’....

[SloopJohnB]

== Norman Rockwell’s art was not diverse enough. Down is up, white is black. Independence day is to celebrate civil rights, gay rights, animal rights, women’s rights, moonbat rights. ==

In keeping with your post along with the goals of communism shown in this thread
was Serrano's 'Piss Christ.' This 'art' was partially funded with taxpayer money (NEA).

Supporters justified it as artistic freedom and freedom of speech.

[SloopJohnB]

== Norman Rockwell’s art was not diverse enough. Down is up, white is black. Independence day is to celebrate civil rights, gay rights, animal rights, women’s rights, moonbat rights. ==

In keeping with your post along with the goals of communism shown in this thread
was Serrano's 'Piss Christ.' This 'art' was partially funded with taxpayer money (NEA).

Supporters justified it as artistic freedom and freedom of speech.

[Yardstick]

Glopnik is just another thoroughly conventional leftist. These people are as predictable as clockwork.

[MinuteGal]

My doctor has a roomy waiting room. His walls are covered exclusively with a collection of framed Norman Rockwell. All the favorites are there, plus more not so well known, but SO superb in craftsmanship......and SO interesting to study.

I notice folks check in with the receptionist and then, without even sitting down, they start walking around studying the prints and then the smiles break out and the heads nod.

My other doctors and dental people also have waiting rooms filled with reproductions of landscapes and modern abstracts. Folks check in with the receptionist, grab a magazine and sit down to read.

Rockwell knew what he was doing....we know what we are doing.....and the artsy-fartsy faux elites at the Compost have NO idea of what they're doing....which is, to put it bluntly, participating in the catapulting of journalism into the pits of the Nether World.

Leni