In Praise of Norman Rockwell by Carolee Ross

Artist’s Americana is now considered high art

Triple Portrait by Norman Rockwell
February 13, 1960

 

When I was a young art history student, Norman Rockwell’s visions of an idyllic America were dismissed at “kitsch,” the ultimate in sentimentality and bad taste. The intelligentsia of the academic world met my queries about Rockwell’s status in American art with silent disdain.

            It seemed that the prolific Rockwell, whose illustrations appeared in the Saturday Evening Post from 1916 to 1963, was one of those artists whose destiny was to be cherished by the public and detested by the connoisseur.

            There are probably a lot of red-faced professors now, for Rockwell’s status has changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

An Astonishing About-Face

            Art critics and scholars are now doing an astonishing about-face and the frigid dividing line between art for the masses and art for the elite is experiencing a quick meltdown and critics such as Robert Rosenblum, art critic for Artforum and professor of fine arts at New York University, and Paul Johnson, critic for the Spectator, are jumping on the Rockwell bandwagon.

            Writes Rosenblum, “We have a newborn Rockwell, who can no longer be looked at with sneering condescension and might well become an indispensable part of art history. In order to enjoy his unique genius, all you have to do is relax.”

            “Who was the most popular painter of the 20^th century?” asks Johnson. “I suspect the true answer is Norman Rockwell. . .Rockwell will slowly come to be ranked among the Old Masters, as he is already firmly wedged in humble hearts and minds. People do not like Picasso, they just feel they ought to, but they genuinely love Rockwell’s painting.”

            “Pictures for the American People,” a show that traveled throughout America a few years back, making its debut at Atlanta’s High Museum, featured all 322 of Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post magazine covers and more than 70 of his paintings.

            Says Ann Morgan of the High Museum of Art and a former Rockwell model (she posed for his Crest Toothpaste ad in 1957) notes: “Rockwell scholarship has been very superficial. People see him a sentimental, but a number of his works are quite complex and profound.”

            High Museum’s director, Ned Rifkin, points out that Rockwell was one of America’s most successful mass media artists and makes connections to the posters and illustrations of 19^th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and to the pop artists of the 1960s. “It’s amazing how Rockwell created and distilled images into icons of popular culture.”

Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1949

A Master of Genre Painting

            Rockwell gave the American public exactly what it wanted, a 20^th century version of genre painting, or art of the common person. In a way, he is the descendant of 19^th century American masters William Sidney Mount, Caleb Bingham and Winslow Homer, who gave their vast audiences scenes from everyday life – children, farm life, people at work.

            What does Rockwell have in common with these artists? Adherence to facts, directness of vision, clarity and solidity. He was intrigued and captivated by the human condition and helped shape the iconography of the mass media of his time.

            But although he filled his pictures with bushels of visual facts, Rockwell was a fabulist, not a realist. He was, at heart, a propagandist for The American Dream, exaggerating the admirable and pleasant qualities of American life – the corners and outposts of our culture.

            Why is Rockwell’s popularity soaring? Because since the days of the disappearance of open plains and horse and buggy, Americans have sought a return to what they believe are simpler times.

Saying Grace, 1951, by Norman Rockwell
in the collection of Steven Spielberg

Director Steven Spielberg a proud Rockwell collector

            Movie director Steven Spielberg owes a debt to the art of Norman Rockwell, He owns “Saying Grace,” a Thanksgiving 1951 Saturday Evening Post cover, depicting a little boy and his grandmother, saying grace before their meal in a big-city restaurant filled with truck drivers and businessmen. This is quintessential Rockwell.

            Spielberg a trustee of The Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, also owns 13 other Rockwell original paintings.

My Adventures as an Illustrator

            In his 1960 autobiography, “My Adventures as an Illustrator,” (Harry N. Abrams) Rockwell wrote: “The commonplaces of America are to me the richest subjects in art; boys batting flies on vacant lots, little girls playing jacks on the front steps, old men plodding home at twilight, umbrella in hand – all of these things arouse feeling in me. Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.”

The Problem We All Live With

"The problem we all live with" — by Norman Rockwell , depicting an incident in the American Civil Rights struggle of the early 1960s, when Ruby Bridges entered first grade on the first day of court-ordered desegregation of New Orleans, Louisiana public schools (November 14, 1960). Originally published in Look Magazine.

The painting is currently displayed in the West Wing of the White House, just outside President Obama's Oval Office.

          Rockwell also loved the movies and illustrated several movie posters between 1942 and 1966, including “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “The Song of Bernadette,” “Along Came Jones,” “The Razor’s Edge,” “Cinderfella,” and the 1966 remake of the classic, “Stagecoach.” In his portraits of well-known actors, Rockwell infused his canvases with subtle nuances of the personality each actor sought to portray.

Workaholic Rockwell

            Norman Rockwell was a workaholic, who painted from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. Born in New York City on February 3, 1894, Rockwell’s greatest desire was to be an illustrator. He found success early, painting his first commission for Christmas cards before his 16^th birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director for Boys Life Magazine.

Scout at Ship's Wheel, 1913
Illustration for Boy's Life Magazine

            Rockwell produced work for leading magazines such as Life, Literary Digest and Country Gentleman, and did his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1916. Over the next 47 years, Rockwell created 321 more covers for the Post, including “The Four Freedoms,” which had been rejected by dozens of bureaucrats at the War Department in Washington, D. C. He presented the idea to editor Ben Hibbs, who urged him to create them for the Post.

Freedom of Speech from The Four Freedoms
by Norman Rockwell

            President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote a letter to Rockwell, stating: “I think you have done a superb job in bringing home to the plain, everyday citizen, the plain everyday truths behind the Four Freedoms – I congratulate you.” The paintings were made into war bond posters and went on a 16-city tour that brought in more than $132 million for the war bond effort.

The Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell

            In 1973, Rockwell established a trust to preserve his artistic legacy and placed it under the custodianship of The Normal Rockwell Museum at the Old Corner House in Stockbridge. Rockwell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, the highest civilian honor for his vivid and affectionate portraits of America. He died at his Stockbridge home on November 8, 1978.

The Connoisseur
by Norman Rockwell

In 1961, Rockwell's studio was temporarily transformed into an abstract expressionist's workplace while he painted The Connoisseur. The purpose of this work was to show the relationship between conventional and modern art. Always fascinated by modern and abstract art, Rockwell designed a cover in which he could acknowledge his appreciation of the genre by emulating Jackson Pollock's style. By placing his back to us, he leaves the interpretation of the museum visitor’s reaction to the viewer.