WANT TO GO?
WHAT: “Norman Rockwell: The Man Behind the Canvas”
WHEN: Through Dec. 31. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; 12:30-4:30 p.m. on Sundays. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
WHERE: Springfield Museum of Art, 107 Cliff Park Drive, Springfield
ADMISSION: $5 for adults; free for those ages 17 and under. $3 for students and seniors. Those who are members of other art museums including the Dayton Art Institute are admitted free of charge.
For more information: (937) 325-4673 | www.springfieldart.net
RELATED PROGRAMMING:
- "Understanding Norman Rockwell" is a series of series of public programs funded by Ohio Humanities and designed to expand on the themes explored in the museum exhibition: identity, reality vs. perception, and American culture. All programs are at 6:30 p.m.
- On Tuesday, Oct 25, Smithsonian American Art Museum Chief Curator Virginia Mecklenburg will share her research on Rockwell and popular culture that informed the 2010 Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit, "Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg."
- On Thursday, Nov 3, "PechaKucha Night (PKN) at the Museum" will be presented by the Westcott House. The theme is "Nostalgia and Renewal" to encourage presenters and audience members to think about how nostalgia influences change such as that occurring in many of the revitalization projects in small cities throughout Ohio, like Springfield, Troy and Xenia.
- On Tuesday, Dec. 6, photographers and preservationists Vicki Rulli and Tom Heaphy, creators of Itinerant Studio in Springfield, will share their journey rediscovering Springfield and actively leading others to reimagine the renaissance of this small town as it finds its identity and vision for the future.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Norman Rockwell was born in New York City on Feb. 3, 1894. He transferred from high school to the Chase Art School at the age of 14. He then went on to the National Academy of Design and finally to the Art Students League.
- During the First World War, Rockwell tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy but was refused entry, because at 6 feet tall and 140 pounds, he was eight pounds underweight. To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and donuts, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his tour of duty.
- He started his career as art editor of "Boy's Life" magazine and three years later earned his first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post."
- Rockwell sought something of the idealized world he imagined when he moved out of the city — first to New Rochelle, N.Y., then later settling in Vermont with his family. Rockwell found new models in the form of neighbors, as well as his children. He spent the last 25 years of his life in Stockbridge, Mass., the home of hte Rockwell Museum.
- During his long career, he was commissioned to paint the portraits for presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, as well as those of foreign figures, including Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru. One of his last works was a portrait of legendary singer Judy Garland in 1969.
- Rockwell's "Bride to Be" was the cover for a Top Value trading stamp catalog in Dayton.
- In 2013, a Rockwell painting sold for $46 million.
SOURCE: Karen Anne Briggs, curator
“I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.”
— Norman Rockwell
Some of us have fond memories of “The Saturday Evening Post” magazine and its charming covers depicting everyday life in small-town America. Thanks to artist Norman Rockwell, we peeked at a teenage girl and boy getting ready for their prom, a little boy reading his sister’s diary, a schoolmarm and her students, a soldier home on leave, a little boy tending to his sick puppy, a barbershop quartet.
More than 44,000 of us enjoyed the Dayton Art Institute’s 2011 exhibit, “American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell.” The touring exhibit, organized by the Rockwell Museum, traced the evolution of Rockwell’s art and iconography throughout his career.
Now there’s another terrific opportunity to learn more about the man who has been labeled America’s most popular and beloved artist. The Springfield Museum of Art is hosting “Norman Rockwell: The Man Behind the Canvas.” In her curator’s statement, Karen Anne Briggs, executive director of the LaGrange Art Museum, says this show is not meant to be a survey course in Rockwell illustration but rather “a rare and unusual opportunity to get a glimpse of the man who privately, humanly, with dry Yankee wit and much wisdom, showed us a better version of ourselves.”
Rockwell continues to show up in all kinds of places. Ann Pici, who is currently teaching a course in literature about small town life in America at the University of Dayton’s Osher Lifelong Learning session, brought an art book about Norman Rockwell to share with her students earlier this week.
“Art and literature of small-town life carry an aesthetic appeal that speaks to our human desire and craving for simpler times and lives,” Pici says. “Of course, we prefer these towns to be idyllic in beauty and in security, and we like them to be peopled with folk that are admirable and have only the gentler variety of foibles and eccentricities. They are havens for hope.”
That describes Rockwell’s work to a tee. “I paint the world not as it is, but as I would like it to be,” the artist once stated.
About the exhibition
The roots of the Springfield show can be traced back to a plane ride when Briggs struck up a conversation with two strangers — Charlie and Joy Flint — on a flight to San Francisco. Turned out the couple owned the largest privately held collection of Norman Rockwell ephemera in the country and offered to share their precious collection with Briggs and her museum.
Among their treasures are dozens of photographs taken by Louis Lamone, Rockwell’s trusted friend and photographer. Initially Lamone was charged with documenting Rockwell’s photos before they were delivered to clients. Later he was also responsible for the “reference” photos of staged scenes that Rockwell used in his work. Lamone also assisted in photo shoots and was even one of Rockwell’s models.
“Karen recognized the value of the photographs in their ability to show another side of Rockwell,” says Ann Fortescue, executive director of the Springfield museum who says the photos show both Rockwell’s stern public side and his goofy and playful private side. They also demonstrate Rockwell’s love of costumes and props.
“Karen worked with the collector and selected 100 photos for this exhibit,” she says. “Through his work as the principal artist for the ‘Post,’ Rockwell had the opportunity to meet many well-known and famous people.”
In addition to the photographs, you’ll see other interesting memorabilia ranging from personal letters to behind-the-scenes descriptions of many of Rockwell’s most famous illustrations and how they came to be. You’ll see postage stamps he designed, learn more about his involvement and work for the Boy Scouts and his involvement with the Hollywood film, “Stagecoach.” The exhibit even includes some favorite recipes.
Meet Virginia Mecklenburg
In conjunction with the exhibit, Smithsonian American Art Museum Chief Curator Virginia Mecklenburg will come to town on Tuesday, Oct. 25 to share her research on Rockwell and the popular culture that informed the 2010 Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit, “Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Mecklenburg says she’s always delighted to return to Dayton because she lived her as a child when her father was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Norman Rockwell, she says, not only lives in the hearts of Americans of all generations — whether or not they ever saw or even heard of “The Saturday Evening Post” — but also in the hearts of people all over the world.
“The things and people he shows us — their facial expressions, their body language and the way they interact with one another — really captures the heart of who we are as human beings,” Mecklenburg says. ” It is absolutely universal and you don’t even have to speak English or spend any time in the United States to understand what he’s showing us.”
Mecklenburg says one of the things she finds most fascinating about Rockwell’s art is how topical much of it is.
Universal themes
One of Mecklenburg’s favorite images is a woman sitting on a chair with a parenting book in one hand, a squalling child over her lap, and a hairbrush in the other hand. She’s trying to decide whether to spank the child or reason with him. “It’s the kind of thing all parents deal with,” Mecklenburg says. “How do I discipline this child who is being a spoiled brat?”
Another example of Rockwell’s universal humor: an older woman with her hands on her hips looking at her husband who is looking at a pinup calendar. “One of my favorites is a little boy getting glasses for the first time,” Mecklenburg says. “He is trying on these glasses with a horrified look on his face….knowing his life as a 10-year-old macho boy is over.”
Mecklenburg believes Rockwell’s art speaks to people in personal ways. “I look at Rockwell paintings, and I see my sister when she was a teenager, my brother when he was a little kid, my grandmother who was so thrilled to have her grandchildren come over that she would bake our favorite cookies and fix our favorite food.”
Springfield exhibit
What’s special about the Springfield exhibit is that it brings all of the stories home and makes them personal because we get to see how Rockwell posed ordinary people that he knew — his neighbors, children, wife. They all became the characters in his stories. Through Louis Lamone’s photographs we see how careful Rockwell was to make certain that the postures and expressions conveyed precisely what he wanted to say.
“Often Lamone took many photos of a scene and then Rockwell lined up the photographs and combined pieces from multiple photos to make the final composite image,” Mecklenburg explains. ” He might take a facial expression from one, the way a figure was standing from another. He talked about himself as a director, and said if he hadn’t been an artist he would have been a movie director.”
In her curator’s statement, Briggs says the fact that Rockwell has managed to capture the hearts of so many people is easy to understand when you know him. “For somehow, he himself is like a gallery of Rockwell paintings —friendly, human, deeply American, varied in mood, but full, always, of the zest for living.”
About the Author