Norman Rockwell: American Master traces the evolution of Rockwell’s art and iconography throughout his career—from carefully choreographed reflections on childhood innocence in such works as Girl in the Mirror to powerful, consciousness-raising images like Moving Day, documenting the traumatic realities of racial tension in the 1960’s in America.
Featured in Norman Rockwell: American Master are several acclaimed portfolios including the Four Ages of Love, Puppy Love, The Sports Portfolio, and Rockwell’s Four Freedoms originally created to raise funds for the war. Rockwell’s artistic contributions and the impact of his images on American popular culture are explored within the context of his life and times throughout this special exhibit.
Norman Rockwell has been so influential to the American way of life, not only to the many readers of the Saturday evening Post, and all future artists, his art has crossed over to affect other mediums of art such as filmmakers. Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas for example have talked about the influence of Rockwell compositions in their work. Both men are renowned for their incredible Rockwell art collections. His art is as American as apple pie and yet is somehow universal with its elements of morality, love, and expressions of the human condition. Norman Rockwell was a masterful storyteller who often went to great lengths to stage the scenes for his paintings. He auditioned the models, chose their costumes, arranged props, lighted the sets and, like a movie director, demonstrated poses and facial expressions. The artist created scenes that parallel themes also found in movies, popular fiction and current events. The films of Lucas and Spielberg, like Rockwell paintings, evoke love of country, small-town values, children growing up, unlikely heroes, acts of imagination and life’s ironies.
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