Art Chowder November | December, Issue 24 | Page 36

A
great illustrator, yes,
but the America he painted
wasn’t real, they say. An
episode from 2005 in the PBS
television discussion program
Think Tank asked the question,
“Was Norman Rockwell a
Great Artist?” Anne Knutson,
an art historian and one of the
panelists, was guest curator
for the traveling Rockwell
exhibition at the High
Museum in Atlanta. Asked
how she happened to get
involved with the Rockwell
project, she admitted to some
initial hesitation.
“You know, my
undergraduate, graduate
history classes — ” she said,
“— Rockwell is introduced to
be dismissed. And of course,
that’s very typical, because
there is no content behind
this kind of thing. You’re not
shown his images. His name
is up here: “Sentimentalism”
— and just dismissed. But,
once I got into the project,
and once I saw the paintings,
I was completely transformed,
and all those preconceptions
shattered.”
Seeing his real paintings
does make a difference.
His work remains largely
known through printed
or digital reproductions.
Rockwell didn’t paint to
show in art galleries for
sale but for publication. But
his oil paintings really are
spectacular and larger than
might be expected if one only
saw the images in magazines.
36
Norman Rockwell
“Time To Retire” - Sleeping Tramp
1923, oil on canvas
28” x 21 1/4”, signed and dated lower right
Fisk tire advertisement
Country Life Magazine May 1924 p. 101
But was Norman Rockwell’s the “real” America, as some continue to contest?
Rockwell eschewed the dark and seamy sides of life. His pictures are all carefully
staged. Likening his process to motion picture making, he was the author-screenwriter,
set designer, casting director, costume designer, prop master, and director. (It is not
always recognized that to work for the Post one had to adapt to its conservative
editorial policies. By 1963 he left and started doing covers and illustrations for Look,
which gave him more freedom to address societal issues he found important.)
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