Pictures for the American People: The Art of Norman Rockwell

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 2000 by Laurie Norton Moffatt

It is clear that Rockwell's impact on American culture far transcends any one movement, era, or message. The audience always came first for Rockwell, and viewers still come to see his work. Annually, 200,000 visitors journey to Stockbridge, a small town in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, to view the paintings and studio at The Norman Rockwell Museum, one of only a handful in the U.S. devoted to a single artist. The museum, dedicated to presenting the world's largest Rockwell collection in the context of the field of illustration, celebrates illustration as an important contemporary art form.

Rockwell let nothing come between his audience and the story he was telling. This was one of his credos--that a painting and an observer have a one-on-one relationship without the need of intermediaries. This belief is in direct conflict with much 20th-century art. As modern art became more abstract, a world of intermediaries developed. This led to the idea that art was not important or serious if it was easily understood.

Mass culture today has blurred the line between high culture and low and has shaped contemporary visual expression. Without Rockwell's eyes, America might otherwise have lost a piece of its history. His narrative imagery is a gift to the nation.

Rockwell's place in the critical canon of American art history continues to be debated. Rockwell himself commented through his painting "The Connoisseur" on the dichotomy of his popular success and critical disdain. With his usual self-deprecating style and humor, he seems to say, "In the upside-down world of 20th-century art, where do I fit in?"

A traveling exhibition, "Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People," invites reflection on Rockwell as a force in 20th-century American art and culture. The first major exhibition since his death in 1978, it explores the themes and iconography that shaped his contribution to the visual literature and vocabulary that defined American self-image throughout much of the century. Perhaps it will inspire reconsideration of his life's paradox--that the ingredients of his popularity doomed him to dismissal by the art establishment. The exhibition provides the opportunity to explore the essence of what made Rockwell so popular. A working illustrator, paid to paint pictures, Rockwell's place in 20th-century American history looms large, and it is appropriate that his work be celebrated and studied as part of the lexicon of American art and culture.

In the end, it was people who mattered. The personal transformation and communication that occurs when one looks at a work of art is the artist's defining moment. Rockwell was a master at delivering that moment to his public. He reminds Americans of their humor and humility, happiness and humanity. These are not bad qualities to embrace.

"Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People" is at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., through Sept. 24, then travels to the San Diego Museum of Art (Oct. 28-Dec. 31); Phoenix Art Museum (Jan. 27-May 6, 2001); Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Mass. (June 9-Oct. 8, 2001); and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (Nov. 16, 2001-Mar. 3, 2002).