The Fantastical Art of James Gurney
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IVINTER/S t • or 010 NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM FROM THE DIRE CTOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES Lee Williams, PreRident \lichelle Gillett, First \ 'ice President Perri Petricca, Second \ 'ice President Stevcn Spielbcrg, Third \'ice President Dear Friends, James W. I rcland, Trea.~urer Mark Selkowitz, Clerk Ruby Bridges Hall It gives me enormous pleasure to boxes for the right piece of paper or Ann Fitzpatrick Brown announce the launch of a major new photograph to accompany an article or a Daniel \1. Cain Alice Carter project at the Norman Rockwell Museum quote in a text. With the eventual com Lansing E. Cranc that will transform the accessibility of our puterization and digitization of collection Bobbie Crosby Museum collections; advance research materials, a researcher, curator, educator, 1\ I ichacl P. Dal) Catharine B. Deel) and understanding of orman Rockwell's or artist can, with the search of a key word PeLer de Seve work; preserve a unique archive of an or catalogue number, see at a glance the John Frank Dr. l'vlal') K. Grant important American artist; and link the breadth of materials linked to a particular jcffrcy Kleiser Museum to major research centers and painting, subject, historic period, or year. john Konwiscr scholars around the world. This project \ Iark Krentzman Thomas D. ~1cCatll1 has been recognized as a national model Initially, materials will be available Deborah S. l\ldd enam) in archival and collections management. solely in the Museum. Eventually, the Wendell Minor Barbara '\Icssim searchable data base will link the Brian j. Quinn ProjectNORMAN (New Media Online Museum to the Internet. '10m Rock\\ell Rockwell Management Art & Archive Diana Walczak Richard B. Wilcox Network) is a comprehensive computeri I am thrilled to announce important Peter Wil liams funding we have received for this project. jamie Wi ll iamson zation, digitization, and programmatic publishing program to make Rockwell's The Museum is a select recipient of a TRUSTEES El\IERITI personal and public papers, art and archives competitive Save America's Treasures I .ila Wilde Berle Janc P. Fitzpatrick accessible to a worldwide audience. grant in the amount of $296,500. Addi Paul Ivol') tional funding has been received by an David L. Klausmeycr I\onna G. Ogden Norman Rockwell gave the Museum his anonymous corporate foundation, the HenrI> I I. Williams, jr. personal collection of papers, photo Institute of Museum and Library HO-';ORARY TRUSTEE graphs, business correspondence, and Services, the Henry W. Luce Foundation, S. Lane Faison, Jr. original publications for furthering the National Endowment for the Arts, Laurie Norton Mofrall, Di rector research and understanding about his art. and the Stockman Family Foundation, portfolio Over the years many generous donors for a total of more than $1 million have contributed to the Rockwell Archive dollars of support to date to advance Volume 23. Issue I, Winkr 2006 Kimberly Rawson, Edilor and today the Reference Center collec the project goals. Jeremy Clowe, Editorial \,sistant tions number more than 100,000 objects. \[ary Ilcrrmann, 'Ioni Kenny, Graphic Design Read more about Portfolio is published b\ the '\Jorman Rockwell \luseum at Stockbridge, Inc .. and is scnt frcc to The Museum receives hundreds of this exciting new all members. il: 2006 b\· the orman Rock-\'ell research inquiries each year, many from project in this issue. \llIsellm at Stockbridge. All rights reserved. Rockwell scholars, including respected em'cr: Look, Augusl 20, 196&, The Polilical!'osler Dress: A \\'rap-llp of pari\' clolhes designed for Ihe oro,, biographers and doctoral students in COllllm rlln b\' Gloria Plalll Pholo b\ Gelle Laurents. American studies, art history, and related fields. The collections are a treasure trove of information on 2oth-century-life in America and contain rich informa tion about Rockwell's unique vision and . ~ Accredited b\ the \ . ' Association of\IIISCllI11S. artistic style. Until now, all research KIDS FREE E\ ERY DAY! program is provided b) inquiries have been handled manually Coun4YCurtains. alld TH ERrnLNNINN by a curator who must search through 2 PORTFOLIO Norman Rockwell, Year by Year - 1966 By Linda Szekely Pero "He sees life with both a cold and accurate and wann and understanding eye, and his hands have the skill to put the two contrasting qualities together in memorable fashion." Los Angeles reporter Ridgely Cummings On January 4,1966, Los Angelenos were treated to an exhibi tion of 96 paintings and drawings by Norman Rockwell. Inspired by a small promotional display of Rockwell artwork for the upcoming movie Stagecoach, city officials mounted the exhibition at The Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park. The exhibition, composed of works from Rockwell's private collec tion, was lauded as the best and most popular to come to Los Angeles in years. Four Freedoms, The Problem We All Live With and Golden Rule shared space with more recent work confused his name with that of George Lincoln Rockwell, for Look and with portraits of Tibetan refugees and Russians leader of the American Nazi party. The year before, a New painted during Rockwell's 1964 trip to Russia and India. York Times front page story on the assassination of Malcolm X made this same mistake. Rockwell hated these aspersions Los Angeles reporter Ridgely Cummings wrote of Rockwell: and had his attorney write to both newspapers' attorneys. "He sees life with both a cold and accurate and warm and His next commission was a series for Look to commemorate understanding eye, and his hands have the skill to put the the fifth anniversary of the Peace Corps. Rockwell wanted to two contrasting qualities together in memorable fashion." express the theme of mutual understanding and help. The Ironically, as Rockwell was finally expressing his own politi job, due March 25, was a big one that would include four cal views on racism through such images as Problem We All Live With and Murder in Mississippi, two 1966 news reports JFK's Bold Legac\'. Oil on canvas, 1966. Norman Rockwell Art Coll ection Trust. WINTER/SPRI G 2006 3 pictures: President Kennedy surrounded by Peace Corps vol from Lenox School. An African American girl, W. Loretta unteers; an agricultural scene in Ethiopia; a schoolroom Bowens, held the space to the right of Leavitt. scene in India; and a Peace Corps volunteer engaged in com munity planning with villagers of Bogota. Rockwell sketched Many changes ensued until Rockwell felt the composition his preliminary idea for the first painting and sent it off to art had improved. Still unsatisfied, Rockwell applied a yellow director Allen Hurlburt with the message, "I want to say that glaze to the whole canvas. This, he felt, made it better. Don these young people, led by Mr. Kennedy, are unselfishly Spaulding, an artist who studied with Rockwell in Vermont, going on a crusade." While he waited for approval, he said that his paintings "never came out as well as he would worked on four smaller commissions: the first in a series of have liked." When he once asked him how he could be dis catalogue cover illustrations for Top Value Stamps; a portrait couraged about a painting he just finished, "Rockwell said," of Pennsylvania's Lieutenant Governor Raymond P. Shafer; You should have seen it the way I saw it in my mind when I and a series of advertisements for Red Wing Shoes. Scouting started it." is Outing, the 1968 Boy Scouts of America calendar illustra tion, filled out his ambitious winter schedule. On March 1, Rockwell and wife Molly left for a brief vaca tion at New York's Plaza Hotel. They toured the Frick Rockwell struggled with the main Peace Corps picture of Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Kennedy with the volunteers. In the preliminary, he depict Museum of Modern Art during the days and saw ed it in the style of his 1942 Freedom of Worship painting, "Philadelphia Here I Come" and "Luv" on Broadway in the with portrait heads amassed together. But Art Director evenings. When he returned home, Rockwell completed his Hurlburt said it depicted "too many handsome Americans." Top Value cover image Music Man, re-glazed JFK's Bold Rockwell resumed work, moving the middle figure occupied Legacy, and shipped them off. Accompanying JFK's Bold by Marty Salvadore, a blond, Stockbridge man, to the top of Legacy was a note to Hurlburt saying "In this sordid world of the canvas and replacing him with Dr. Martin Geller as a power struggles, politics and national rivalries, the Peace "Jewish type." Deciding that Dr. Geller didn't work, Corps seems to stand alone." On March 15, the Rockwells Rockwell replaced him with Maurice Leavitt, a student flew to Bogota. Rockwell needed photos and impressions for 4 PORTFOLIO dark-green Tyrolean mole, perhaps, a blushing feath er behind one of its concealed ears," appears twice in Rockwell's painting. The 24-inch x 41-inch painting was published as a two-page spread, large enough for readers to identify the 11 celebrities. Rockwell's next big commission, for Look, was a painting of a football player to illustrate Gerald Astor's essay "The Hunt for Strong Backs and Strong Minds," documenting college competition to recruit athletes amid the increasing populari ty of professional footbalL The inducements - tuition, room and board, and up to $15 a month for incidental expenses pale when compared to today's standards. Models for The Recruit were Williams College junior linebacker D ennis J. Kelly, flanked by his coach Frank Navarro, and trainer Joe Altott. To pose the three, Rockwell borrowed from Michelangelo's statue of Giuliano de' Medici, from th e his next Peace Corps picture. He was able to finish the Medici Chapel at th e Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, Ethiopia and India pictures based on his research from earli Italy.