'I showed the America I know and observed to
others who might not have noticed.'
-Norman Rockwell -
It had to happen.
American could not exit the century without a great big wopping dose of
nostalgia. Grandpas, sailors, barber shops, puppies, baseball, hot dogs
and all things Americans do best.
People look at Rockwell's
pictures and feel affection for the artist, quite a strange phenomenom
especially in this century. It is because his keen observation of what
is charming and amusing in everyday life strikes an instant rapport with
the American viewer.  A
fresh-faced boy in a sweet shop, bubble gum machines and men in bow ties
makes stern men crumble with childhood memories. Then there is his hyper-realist
technique. If you hate Rockwell's subject matter you have got to be in
awe of his talent to reproduce everything he witnessed in photographic
detail. Just as seventeenth century Dutch artists astonished with their
perfect rendering of dew drops on fruit and the wings of a butterfly so
too Rockwell sucks you in with his precision and verisimilitude.
But stunning technique
can be utterly boring. Rockwell entertains with his narratives. He was
an artist who chronicled both the everyday moments and the extraordinary
events of his era, from the First World War to the moon landing. The exhibition
will feature all 322 covers he executed for The Saturday Evening Post.
Seventy oil paintings prove that he was not just an artist-journalist or
"commercial artist" and "illustrator" - derogatory terms to apply to any
creative, original artist.
Norman Rockwell:
Pictures for the American People is organized by The Norman Rockwell
Museum at Stockbridge.
Report by Rachel
Le Goff |
