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Norman Rockwell exhibit opens Saturday at DAI

"COMING AND GOING," 1947, by Norman Rockwell, each section 16" x 31.5", oil on canvas.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Norman Rockwell working in his Stockbridge, Mass., studio on preliminary studies for "The Art Critic" in 1955.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Meredith Moss, Staff Writers Updated 1:15 PM Friday, November 11, 2011

DAYTON — When it came time to re-cap Game 6 of this year’s exciting World Series, National Public Radio’s Tom Goldman referred to third baseman David Freese’s winning home run as the “Norman Rockwell moment.”

It was the kind of inspiring slice of Americana that the renowned illustrator regularly captured in his 65-year career, most notably on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post. In its heyday, the popular magazine entertained as many as six million readers.

You can see for yourself at the Dayton Art Institute, where the special exhibit — “American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell” — officially opens Saturday. On tour from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., the colorful exhibition includes 42 original paintings and all of Rockwell’s 323 charming and heart-warming covers from The Saturday Evening Post.

Rockwell produced nearly 4,000 images in his career, said Laurie Norton Moffatt, the Rockwell museum’s director and author of the exhibit catalog foreword. That extensive body of work came from a workaholic who spent seven days a week in his studio and produced 800 magazine covers, advertising campaigns for more than 150 companies, and hundreds of story illustrations. By the time he was 18, he was a working illustrator and art editor for Boys’ Life magazine. At 22, he had achieved his “secret ambition” of creating a cover for the Post, and by 30 he had become a nationally known figure.

To understand his celebrity, says Rockwell museum manager of media services Jeremy Clowe, it’s important to keep in mind the times in which Rockwell painted.

“Today you have the Internet, television, video games, and you’re bombarded with choices,” he observes. “When Rockwell was starting as a young artist, illustration was one of the most popular forms of communication, and the cover of a magazine like The Saturday Evening Post would offer these beautiful works — by Rockwell and other artists — that would essentially tell a story in one image.”

A “Norman Rockwell moment,” he says, captured a common everyday scene that readers would instantly recognize.

Although art experts — like the one pictured in Rockwell’s famous painting, “The Art Critic” — are happy to analyze the traits that make Rockwell a fine artist — such as his use of color and detail, it’s the accessibility of his work that turned him into an American icon. You don’t have to be an art critic to comprehend and appreciate the story each painting tells — whether it’s the tale of a shocked little boy discovering a Santa Claus suit in his father’s dresser drawer or a Boy Scout rescuing a child from a flooded river.

Rockwell was known for focusing on small town life and carefully staging each scene for his paintings. In his early New York years, he used professional models. But when he moved to Stockbridge in the early 1950s, he began seeking out and photographing townspeople.

“The older pictures are more painterly, but the photography allowed him to use everyday people and that’s what solidified that Norman Rockwell look,” Clowe said. “They were real people — your kind doctor, the girl next door.”

Clowe, who has been with the Stockbridge museum for more than 10 years, has interviewed a number of the people who posed for Rockwell.

“If he were going to do a piece with a child, he would go to the school in Stockbridge and look around,” he said. “If he spotted somebody he thought would work, he contacted the schoolmaster and got permission from the parents. Then they would come to his studio.”

One man, he said, remembered being called to the principal’s office as a little boy, thinking he was in trouble. He was actually being summoned to see if he wanted to pose for a painting.

Clowe said museum visitors are often chuckling as they make their way through Rockwell galleries.

“The subject matter of most of Rockwell’s work is humorous,” he said, adding that later in his career Rockwell dealt with more serious issues, including desegregation. “People are very moved by many of his paintings,” Clowe said.

You’ll get a chance to see how Rockwell worked — on display are the preliminary sketches, photographs, color studies and detailed drawings related to his 1965 painting “Murder in Mississippi,” which illustrates the murders of three young civil rights workers.

This exhibit is ideal for families, and the DAI is using it for lots of other activities and programs. The Cafe will be serving all-American comfort food, and the gift shop will be filled with Rockwell-related nostalgic treasures.

Be sure to bring along your camera: You’ll have a chance to take pictures in front of a life-size Saturday Evening Post cover, and props will be available for those who’d like to create their own Rockwell-inspired scene. The photos will be posted to the museum’s Flickr and Facebook pages.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.

how to go

WHAT: “American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell”
WHEN: Nov. 12 -Feb. 5.
WHERE: Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park N., Dayton
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, and extended hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m.
COST: $15 for adults, $13 seniors, active military and groups, students 18 and older with ID, and $10 for youths 17 and younger, free for children 6 and younger. Free first visit for museum members.
PARKING: Free
THE CAFE: Serves lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 3:30 p.m. on Sundays.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS: Docent-led tours of the exhibit, Tour and Tea programs. At 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, Michael Lasser of National Public Radio will speak on the topic: “Idealizing America: Norman Rockwell and Irving Berlin.” At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19, children’s book illustrator Tim Bowers will conduct a family workshop.
FOR INFO AND RESERVATIONS: (937) 223-4278 or visit www.daytonartinstitute.org