Exhibit shows different side of iconic artist Norman Rockwell
Birmingham Museum of Art features the artist's works
One of America’s most famous artists has an image problem.
Norman Rockwell became the best-known artist of the 20th century through often-idyllic, usually whimsical paintings turned into 323 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, once the most widely circulated weekly magazine in the United States.
The vividly rendered images of kids and grown-ups at play and work, in repose and action, going about ordinary lives, were so beloved they’ve been reprinted in posters, calendars and just about anything flat that holds an image. Many fans tore off the magazine covers, for the Post and later for Look magazine, and framed them.
But Rockwell’s reputation became synonymous with a kind of corny, old-fashioned view, a filtered and unrealistic vision of life that never actually was.
Dispelling that notion is part of the joy of walking through “Norman Rockwell’s America,” a six-decade-spanning exhibit including some paintings that show the artist’s view of life was far more complex than his editors would allow.
The exhibit is on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art through Jan. 6, with more than 52 original paintings and drawings, and all 323 Post covers created between 1916 and 1963.
“One of the most astonishing things about this exhibit, we think we know Norman Rockwell, because he was so ubiquitous,” said Graham C. Boettcher, William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. “But this exhibition goes a long way to breaking him out of those boxes.
“It shows a greater degree of technique, and a tremendous range of subject matter, than most people are probably aware of.”
He began studying art at 14, and was already a professional in 1912 when the 18-year-old was hired to create illustrations for Carl H. Claudy’s book “Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature.”
Before he left his teens, Rockwell was hired as art editor for the Boy Scouts of America magazine Boys’ Life, where he worked three years, painting several covers in the process. “Mother’s Day Off,” published May 20, 1916, became his first cover for the Post, his home for decades.
Rockwell’s love for Mark Twain shows in repeated images of Huck Finn-type characters, and his wit shines in the Post images, often capturing a moment of frozen action that told a story, with subtleties not obvious on first view.
For example, the post-war cover titled “Election Day” shows a husband and wife at breakfast, ripping into an argument over Dewey (his pick) versus Truman (hers). On first glance, it’s a quaintly silly domestic scene. But when you take into account the times, Rockwell was underlining changing roles of women. Rosie the Riveter may have gone back to being a housewife, but she hadn’t lost her emerging sense of independence. The husband seems to have the upper hand, but the wife is quietly defiant; and of course, historically, she picked the right candidate. Meanwhile, the baby’s crying on the floor, ignored by both, and the dog below and caged bird above don’t seem to care.
His 1936 illustration for the American Magazine short story “Love Ouanga” illustrates Rockwell’s eye for composition and narration, with a very stylishly dressed, obviously big-city black woman sitting in the pews of a country church, being scrutinized by much more plainly garbed locals. Repeating reds throughout draw the eye from the child and the curious adults to the women hunching far to the right. It’s burnished in deeper shades and textures than what people generally think of as Rockwell’s style.
“He loved to illustrate stories; he’d pick a moment of high drama and pull it out,” Boettcher said.
The 1962 “Lunch Break with Knight” again looks like the work of a different artist, partly for the thickly applied glaze, which Rockwell laid on with a broom. It’s also notable for his love of tiny jokes, with a rolling eyeball prominent in the obviously stuffed horse. The lunch-eater was originally Rockwell’s own face — he often inserted his own image — but he painted over with another model, giving the central figure a texture that makes the painting seem almost 3-D.
Rockwell loved hiding jokes, especially in his illustrations, so the full-scale painting of one of his famous April Fool’s Day paintings, in which he jumbled dozens of impossibilities together, is helpfully illustrated with all 57 gags. There are things like a halo over the “Mona Lisa,” a dog’s head on a cat’s body, creepy mirror images and figures leaping from paintings into life. His 1930 “Girl Running with Wet Paint (Wet Canvas)” shows a tiny self-portrait joke: Rockwell used his own paintbox and palette as models for the girl’s. It’s easy to check out, as the actual box is nearby, under glass.
There are also studies showing works in progress, and a collection of sketches of young Mary Whelan, one of his favorite models, with photographs of the real girl showing Rockwell didn’t need to exaggerate much.
One interesting about “Norman Rockwell’s America” is how it shows the artist was much more progressive than he was allowed to be even as he became extremely popular for the Post, and even for the more open-minded Look later. His “Blood Brothers” painting, showing slain black and white men side by side in violent death, was never printed by Look, despite early editorial approval.
However, Look did use his 1963 “The Trouble We All Live With,” a stark work showing young Ruby Bridges being escorted by towering federal marshals into a newly integrated New Orleans school.
The Post’s regressive policies — there was an unwritten rule that black people could only be shown in subservient positions or occupations — was probably part of the reason Rockwell left the decades-long job, Boettcher said.
“He was a progressive,” Boettcher said. “I think ultimately his conscience got the better of him.”
At the end of the main tour is a smaller collection of art Rockwell painted on commission from the Coca-Cola company, including one of the six actual paintings, and an exhibit of illustrations from the Birmingham Museum of Art’s permanent collection called “Golden Age,” including works by Frederic Remington, N. C. Wyeth, Thomas Hart Benton and Maxfield Parrish. It was curated by Kelsey Frady, who’s earning her master’s degree in art history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was hired to pick the works and write copy, after serving as curatorial fellow for the 2011-2012 school year.
“I compiled a huge master list of American illustrators starting in the 1860s ending in the 1940s, then looked for the most representative pieces,” Frady said. Boettcher provided feedback and gave outlines. The bigger names were obvious picks, and Western subjects are a hot topic. Included are sketches, paintings, smaller- and larger-scale works, along with book illustrations.
“We wanted it to be well-rounded,” she said. Illustration was a relatively new field to Frady. She found that much scholarship has come out dispelling an older notion that illustrators weren’t “real” artists.
“Many illustrators were classically trained as painters, have the same depth of knowledge,” she said. “It’s not as fashionable, but a lot of well-known painters in American art started as illustrators, or did illustrations to help make a living. It’s just as justifiable an art form as photography or painting.”
Although the exhibit, which broke attendance records on initial exhibit in London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery, will be up until January, Boettcher urges people to not wait.
“This is the kind of popular exhibit that we’ve unfortunately had to turn people away, when they waited until the last weeks to try and get in,” he said.
When: through Jan. 6 Where: Birmingham Museum of Art, 2000 8th Ave. N., Birmingham Admission: $15, which includes an audio tour, accessible by cellphone, smartphone or Internet-enabled device