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.

[PJ-Comix]

Check the full story to see what Gopnik considers to be good art. You will burst out laughing!

[noblejones]

Yeah, libtards; it’s real “courageous” to do the exact same crap that everyone else is doing.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

So if Gopnik can't stand the popular Norman Rockwell, just what kind of art does he like?

Socialist Realism

[Clemenza]

Norman Rockwell was a Masshole lefty.

[Dr. Sivana]

It doesn't take any courage to be "Andy Warhol." Your art factory spits out thousands of avant garde pieces ... the commie (literally) art critics eat it up, and anythhing that doesn't get praise is simply stated to be too subtle or post-modern to be understood by the viewer.

Of course, there's courage in the later works of Ad Reinhart:

From his "ultimate painting series:"


This important work, Ultimate Painting #19, recently sold for $190,000 (http://www.icollector.com/Important-Design-Postwar-Contemporary-Art_as13336)

[muawiyah]

I do believe Joe Stalin had all of the other folks in that picture executed or "sent to the front".

Here's a secret for you ~ you can do art, or you can do art history, but few art historians can do art ~ not of any kind.

They are artistic failures themselves. When they get down to arguing that all that counts is the politics of an art piece they should commit sepuku.

[cripplecreek]

Communist goals 22 through 25 as read into the congressional record on january 10 1963 by A S Herlong of Florida.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm

[Paperdoll]

God rest his soul. I just spent a Norman Rockwell Fourth of July in small town, USA, Richfield, WA. on Saturday. Flags lined streets, live music of a talented band, kiosks with things for children to do, beer gardens, ice cream, and the greatest fireworks display I have ever witnessed. Then a curbside neighborhood potluck party on the 4th, with a blazing open fire to warm up to because it was chilly, and another amazing fireworks display, not to mention a group of very pleasant people to chat with. Yes, small towns really know how to celebrate our precious commemoration day. Norman Rockwell was written all over it, and it was beautiful!

[OldDeckHand]

Interestingly enough, Steven Spielberg - a guy who could only be described as a liberal - has one of the largest Rockwell collections in the country (maybe the world).

Other than Rockwell, there aren’t too many other 20th Century American painters I really care for, except for maybe Grant Wood and Ed Hooper. Jackson Pollack, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol - none of them appeal to me.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Just WOW!!!

[Charlespg]

This important work, Ultimate Painting #19, recently sold for $190,000

LOL HA Ben Franklin was right!!

A fool and his money are soon parted

[Captain Rhino]

Click through to the Washington Post article - which, admittedly, is crap - and read the comments. Even among the newpaper’s readership, Mr. Gopnik is taking a beating.

The best punishment for him is silent obliviousness to his existence and to his opinions.

100 years from now, Americans will still know Rockwell as the master illustrator of the early and middle 20th century. Mr. Gopnik and the "art" he favors will rightly be regarded as tasteless trash.

[alpo]

Too bad Rockwell didn’t do a painting of Leon Trotsky with the ice axe embedded in his skull.

[stylecouncilor]

[anniegetyourgun]

Dirty little secret is that Rockwell (once shunned as pedestrian art) is experiencing a revival among the wealthy...especially Leftists.

[tanuki]

Hey, that guy copied ‘Spinal Tap’!

[hellbender]

The Left hates anyone who loves America. This country is not perfect, but it is the most wonderful place to have existed in this world. Most of the people in the rest of the world know this, and would love to live here. Those of use fortunate enough to have been born here should thank the Lord for that fact.

The kind of idealized America portrayed by Rockwell actually existed within the memory of people still alive, although the Left has worked tirelessly to portray it as nothing but a myth.

[truthguy]

Just do a bio on Gopnik and it will tell you everything you need to know. The WAPO isn't fit to wrap fish in.

[cripplecreek]

the Left has worked tirelessly to portray it as nothing but a myth.

Most certainly not a myth. I grew up in a tiny midwestern town and saw bits and pieces of it throughout my 1970s childhood. I live in an even tinier town now and can still find a fair bit of Rockwell's America.

[hinckley buzzard]

Yes. The emperor's new clothes come to mind...