The n ~Oll·O Volume 19 RV Issue I 2002 From the Director The Norman I hope that many of you had the opportu­ from February 18 nity to share in the warmth of the fall through 22, designed Rockwell season at the Norman Rockwell Museum. to give students an Museum While the national tour Pictures for the exciting look at the at Stockb1'idge American People was in Stockbridge, over world of art. From 132,000 came to see it. During its national February 27 through April 10, we are offer­ BOARD OF TRUSTEES tour, more than one million people visited ing Art After School, a program for children Bobbie Crosby' President Perri Petricca • First Vice President the exhibition. Pictures for the American age nine and up. This seven-week class Lee Williams' Second Vice President People opened in New York at the Solomon explores the fundamental concepts neces­ Steven Spielberg· Third Vice President James W. Ireland' Treasurer R. Guggenheim Museum on November 3, sary for creating all styles of animation. Roselle Kline Chartock • Clerk where it remains until March 3, 2002, Robert Berle Ann Fitzpatrick Brown ending its two-year tour. The Museum has assembled four touring Daniel M. Cain Jan Cohn exhibitions of Rockwell's work, which aug­ Catharine B. Deely When the national exhibition left Stock­ ment our national visibility and reputation. Michelle Gillett Elaine S. Gunn bridge, Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle: The These exhibitions-Norman Rockwell's Ellen Kahn Art of Charles Schulz took over the Museum Family Life Series, Norman Rockwell's Tom Jeffrey Kleiser Luisa Kreisberg galleries and the hearts of all who have seen Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Rockwell in Harvey Chet Krentzman Thomas D. McCann it. It is a celebration of the cartoonist's the Forties: The War Years and Norman John C. (Hans) Morris extraordinary life and creative process. Rockwell's 322 Saturday Evening Post Cov­ Barbara Nessim Brian J. Quinn Organized by the Minnesota Museum of ers-contain original magazine tear sheets Tom Rockwell Edward A. Scofield American Art in St. Paul, Minnesota, in and high-quality prints. These amazing Mark Selkowitz partnership with the Charles M. Schulz exhibitions are in constant demand at Diana Walczak Richard B. Wilcox Museum in Santa Rosa, California, Speak hospitals, museums, retirement commu­ Jamie Williamson Softly and Carry a Beagle features original nities and historic locations around the TRUSTEES EMERITI cartoon strips, studies, archival photographs country. They are easily installed and viewed Lila Wilde Berle Jane P. Fitzpatrick and art materials. I invite you to come see by a wide audience who admire Rockwell's Norma G. Ogden Charlie Brown and his friends cavort art and might not otherwise have access Henry H. Williams. Jr. across the comic strip. Come smile with us. to it. If you would like further information Laurie Norton Moffatt. Director The Portfolio on bringing the art of Norman Rockwell to Volume 19, Issue I. 2002 The Museum is sponsoring a most innov­ your community, please contact Traveling Kimberly Rawson. Project Manager Cris Raymond. Editor ative juried sculpture show. Snoopy has Exhibitions at 413.298.4100, ext. 245. Mary Herrmann, Designer requested a new and better doghouse, and The Portfolio is published four times a year by the Norman Rockwell Museum we aim to find one for him. We have In this new year, we shall continue to at Stockbridge, Inc., and is sent free invited artists working in all media to carry out our mission-to preserve, to all members. © 2002 by the Norman Rockwell enter the Norman Rockwell Museum's study and communicate with a world­ Museum at Stockbridge. All rights reserved. first sculpture competition-New Digs for wide audience the life, art and spirit of

Cover: Freedom to Worship. oil on canvas. the Dog. The dog domiciles will be on dis­ Norman Rockwell-by bringing you the Saturday Evening Post. February 27.1943. story illustration. © 1943 SEPS: Ucensed play here and we look forward to sharing best possible exhibitions of Rockwell's by CurtIS Publishing. Indianapolis. IN. All rights reserved this architectural adventure with you. art and that of his colleagues in the field of illustration. I look forward to seeing To enthrall our young friends, the Museum's you in Stockbridge. education department has created Art Adventures-a program for children age The Norman Rockwell Museum i. funded in seven and up. Join us during school vaca­ part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a ~~1tr- stote agency that supports public prog""'" in the arts, humanities, and sciences. tion for a special week of creative activities, Laurie Norton Moffatt Berger Funds i. proud to be • supporter of keeping the arts alive and well in the Berlcsh;,.. •. 2 Upcoming Exhibitions

Nature came through with the beauty that we so much John Held Jr. and the Jazz Age needed in the midst of the September tragedy, and provided Step back in time to the us with one of the most spectacular fall seasons in memory. golden years of the 1920's The Museum galleries were filled to overflowing with with this retrospective. The visitors who came to enjoy our permanent exhibitions, exhibition highlights the compelling programs and the spectacular Charles Schulz works of one of the roaring show. We are holding four terrific new exhibitions in the twenties' premier illustra­ next few months. Good griet1 tors. Through his visuals, Held proved himself a keen Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle: The Art of Charles Schulz observer and a shaper of is currently on exhibition. Through May 5, you will have what F. Scott Fitzgerald the rare opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary life tagged "the Jazz Age." Held's and art of the beloved creator of Peanuts. Experience for portrayals of flappers, colle-

yourself the cartoonist's original drawings, along with giate capers and jazz bands Photo courtesy of Illustration House. selected Peanuts memorabilia. were a departure from the New York City elegant, upper-class figures that dominated American New Digs for the Dog illustration at the time. His works poke gentle fun at the As a special and original treat, social standards of that era. View his original drawings, from April 6 to May 5, you are paintings, sculptures, artifacts and archival photographs, invited to enter Snoopy's private and witness Held's artistic evolution during a period of world! Come and see the creative cultural change in America. John Held Jr. and the Jazz Age results of many artists' three­ is on view from May 6 through September 8. dimensional depictions of the World-Famous Beagle's domicile Norman Rockwell and the ~~ ( l/ ". as they build New Digs for the Artists of New Rochelle Dog. This juried sculpture exhi­ The art of Norman PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate, Inc. bition can be seen both in the Rockwell evolved when he galleries and on the Museum grounds. Don't bring your immersed himself in the dog; he or she will want to take one home! vibrant New Rochelle artistic community, which Sixteenth Annual Berkshire County High School Art Show offered both significant begins on March 23. The Museum is pleased to host this cultural connections and annual exhibition of diverse and original artworks by a sense of country life. many talented local students. The High School Art Show Explore Rockwell's life continues through April 21. and art during his New

Rochelle years by placing Norman Rockwell in his New Rochelle studio. A FAMILY DAY OF FUN April 6 his work within the context Photographer unknown New Digs for the Dog: BUild a Better Doghouse for Snoopy of such colleagues as J.e. and Frank Leyendecker, Coles MEMBERS' OPENING May 18 Phillips, Walter Beach Humphrey, Claire Briggs, Clyde John Held Jr. and the Jazz Age Norman Rockwell and the Artists of New Rochelle Forsythe, Frederick Remington, Worth Brehm, Edward MEMBERS' DANCE PARTY June 8 Penfield and others. Norman Rockwell and the Artists of New Rochelle is on view from May 18 through October 27.

3 Charles Schulz ,...... -If Master

Jan Eliot, Popular Cartoonist and Originator of the Nationally Syndicated Cartoon Strip Stone Soup

I first decided to contact Charles dreams, and for the next five years three months, I suppose he faced the Schulz, whom I would later know as developed my skills in graphic design choice of either issuing a restraining "Sparky," in 1982. I had spent three and copy writing. I had the occasional order, or sending me a contract. For­ years developing and publishing my opportunity to draw a cartoon for tunately, he opted for the latter. In first cartoon strip, Patience and Sarah, some brochure or computer manual the fall of 1995, 16 years after the which featured a divorced single or employee handbook. debut of my first comic strip and 13 mom (Patience) and her precocious years after my first letter from Sparky, daughter (Sarah). I was writing from In 1988, my life changed substantially Stone Soup opened in 25 papers. A my own life situation. While this when I married my husband, Ted. He modest number, but I could finally early strip appeared in about 10 small offered emotional support and a call myself a cartoonist. newspapers and magazines, and had genuine interest in my creative pur­ piqued the interest of three syndicates, suits. I decided to try launching a I remembered Sparky's early words I had not been able to leverage these comic strip once again, and I con­ to me, admonishing me to learn to successes into a syndicate contract and vinced my local paper to give it a draw better and avoid obvious ideas. a viable career as a cartoonist. weekly spot in a feature edition. After I quit my job to devote myself fully six months, I sent 24 strips to Lee to drawing the best cartoon strip I So, I decided to write to Charles Schulz Salem at Universal Press Syndicate. could, with the most original ideas I and ask him to review my work. My He returned them to me with a kind, could come up with. I wanted Stone first letter was returned to me with a lengthy letter, saying, "no thanks." Soup to be funny and professional, note from a staff member saying, Now, you have to realize that in the and I hoped to impress already suc­ "Mr. Schulz does not do this sort of world of publishing, getting a kind, cessful cartoonists like Charles Schulz. thing." I re-sent my letter, pleading lengthy rejection letter is a very good that, as a struggling new cartoonist, thing. It means that there is at least a Soon after I became syndicated, my career would surely benefit from little interest in your work. Other­ Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better a few words of wisdom from the wise, you'd get the dreaded typed, or For Worse, encouraged me to join master. Soon after, a little yellow unsigned memo declaring that your the National Cartoonists Society. envelope sporting a picture of Snoopy work simply "does not fit our needs The next spring, I attended my first at the typewriter arrived in my mail­ at this time." Reuben Awards weekend, sort of the box. I tore it open in great anticipa­ Oscars of cartooning. On Saturday tion. My heart sank into the cellar. Lee and I repeated this exchange morning at breakfast, Lynn found me "He thinks I'm a terrible artist! He for four years. I'd send him a bundle and said, "Come here, I'll introduce thinks my ideas are obvious." I was every six months; he'd send me a nice you to Sparky." We intercepted him devastated. And, he was right. I had a rejection in return. At the beginning on his way to a table. I was so ner­ lot to learn about being a cartoonist. of 1994, I decided to take a more vous that I couldn't think of anything assertive tact. I wrote Lee that I to say. After a few brief words, I went I took Mr. Schulz's advice as best I planned on becoming a working back to my table and he found his. could, but when the year brought cartoonist that year, with or without Somewhat distraught over this brief more disappointments and rejection him, and signed the letter, "This is and fairly unsatisfying meeting, I of my work, I began to lose faith in my year." I began writing him every decided to send him some copies of my ability to make my dream come two weeks, signing each letter, my work and a letter reminding him true. I abandoned my comic strip "Remember, this is my year." After that we had met. As soon as I mailed

4 of Simplicity . .

__~l--(: _ , "-

) I . -_ ./..J "'" -­ -----:::::::-- ~~ ._- 12-22

PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate, Inc. Reproduced by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc. it, I worried that it was the wrong paper and began to draw. It was a Sparky turned to me and said, "You thing to do. But the following Monday, magical moment that I'll never forget. need to find the thing in your strip I picked up my phone to hear, "Good I know that he has probably created that is like having Snoopy stand up!" morning, Jan. This is Charles Schulz". that same moment for many other cartoonists, but this one was mine. I was doubtful because I doubted my My first thought was, "Who is ability to come up with something this really?" The next summer, my first book equally effective. He saw the doubt on collection was released and I sent my face and said, "You can do it, Jan. But fortunately, I realized it must be him a copy. Shortly after, I received a I have faith in you." Once again, he true, and we began to talk. We talked letter saying, "You are going in exactly left me dumbstruck. He barely knew for half an hour. He was genuinely the right direction." The following me. How could he have faith in me? interested in who I was and what car­ December, I went to my second ice But this was part of his magic. He so toonists I admired. I had just pur­ show. Sparky came and sat at our loved cartooning and cartoonists that chased a collection of an old cartoon table. So insecure was I still that I had he really connected. He didn't scan called Skippy, by Percy Crosby. It actually doubted that he remembered the room when he was talking to me turned out to be one of Sparky's me. Yet here he was, asking me how I to see if there was someone more favorites, and I felt his approval was doing. I was a little disappointed important that he should move on to. through the phone. He invited me to because, while my circulation had He didn't care about status. He cared Santa Rosa the following December, grown quickly, it seemed to have about drawing and ideas. when he hosted a yearly party for reached a plateau. cartoonists at the ice show. Sparky Sparky once described a cartoon introduced me to many wonderful Sympathetically, Sparky told me how that he was working on. He asked if I cartoonists and I felt very included in Peanuts had also gotten stuck during thought it was funny. I was astound­ a wonderful new club. After our Sun­ its initial five years. He said, "It all ed to realize that he wanted to know day breakfast, Sparky found me out­ changed when I made Snoopy stand what I thought. But Sparky always side and asked if I'd like to see his up!" He explained that in the begin­ seemed concerned with what the studio. Would I?? He said, "Just follow ning Snoopy was simply a dog-the next good idea would be, and with me." As I drove through the streets of family pet, walking on all fours in the ongoing mystery of where good Santa Rosa, I screamed inside the car, the background. But one day, for ideas come from. I've heard from "I'm following Charles Schulz to his some reason, Sparky decided to have other cartoonists that he would studio!" He showed me his office, the Snoopy stand up on his hind legs often call and ask, "Have any good modest little table he'd been working and have a thought. This innovation ideas today?" Even though he was at his entire career and the pens he created a turning point for Peanuts, successful enough to have dozens of drew with. He got out a piece of and circulation grew, then soared. assistants figuring out what his next

5 '(ou NEVER r HAVE DEEP r KNEW RI6HT ",AVE ANI{ DEEP THOUGHTS ALL FROM THE START TJ.{OUGHT5 .. THE TIME ... THAT "ROSEBUD" WAS l-t15 SLED..

~( ...... :: ...... ~ : ' ""

PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate, In c. Reproduced by permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

strip would be, he wasn't that kind of Losing the baseball game, losing well. They thought this might help cartoonist. To him, it was the greatest another chance to speak to the little convince editors to take it. job in the world, and why wouldn't red-haired girl, to see the Great he want to do it all himself? He never Pumpkin. Charlie Brown always How ironic that the strip with the quit perfecting his craft, searching for loses, again and again. Why is this most diminutive name would inspiration and innovation and funny? Perhaps because loss is a fact become the greatest of all. Art histo­ dreaming up what might happen of life, and we find comfort watching rians, social historians and experts on next with his characters. Charlie Brown patiently, quietly cope pop culture will debate the signifi­ with this fact, getting up again and cance of Peanuts and how Charles As a comic strip, Peanuts was a again, as we all must do. Schulz changed the landscape of the departure from the popular adven­ comics page. ture strips of its day. It was deeper Simply put, Charles Schulz was a very and more poignant then simple gag nice man and a master cartoonist­ I must admit that I am still looking cartoons. Sparky never used gag master of simplicity, repetition and for the thing in my strip that is like writers, as was common with his loss. He used wonderful devices like "making Snoopy stand up." Since peers. Peanuts was as original and the kite-eating tree, Linus' blanket, Sparky thought I could do it, I don't unique as its creator-completely Schroeder's music and the psychiatry think I'll be able to rest until I find it. simple, completely complex. By booth. These ideas were so complete­ And if I do, I hope he has some way setting this tremendously high ly original and effective that each one of hearing about it, and knowing that standard for himself and his strip, has become an institution within the I am grateful. he also raised the bar for all car­ institution of Peanuts. toonists. Most of us only hope to live up to his standards. I know that Sparky experienced rejec­ tion and disappointment at different All of us who read Peanuts can see times. He never liked the name given ourselves in the cast of characters, to his strip. The same people who and this may be one of the keys to its labeled it Peanuts made him draw his success. That, and the fact that the strip in a smaller, more square for­ central theme of Peanuts is loss. Why mat, so that the strip could appear as is this funny? This central theme is four across or two and two. They did -= repeated with great predictability. not think that the strip would sell PEANUTS © United Feature Syndicate. Inc.

~ -#~ National Tour Sponsor of Spea k Softly and Ca rry a Beagle: The Art of Charles Schulz. Organized by the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Saint Paul. MN. and the Charles M. Schulz Museu m, Santa Rosa, CA. This exhibition is supported by The Community foundation for the Cap ita l Region's Pamela Deely Van De lao Advised Fund in memory of James and Pa tric ia Deely.

6 Gifts of Art The most important mission of a museum is to collect and Gift: The donor gives the artwork outright to the Museum. present major artworks. With a strong core collection, a Bequest: A donation of artwork may be stipulated in the museum can initiate education programs for adults and donor's will. children; attract loans for exhibitions of Rockwell art in Partial Gift: The donor may give the Museum a part private hands, as well as work by other famous illustrators; interest in a painting. and serve the public in the most informative, interesting Donative Sale: The donor receives some remuneration and creative ways possible. plus a charitable deduction. -Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director There are many ways to donate works of art that benefit The Norman Rockwell Museum is always grateful for gifts the Museum and provide the donor with a tax deduction. of original Norman Rockwell paintings. Donors may give To learn more, please contact Maureen Hart Hennessey at in a variety of ways: 413.298.4100, ext. 206.

Left to right: Phil the Fiddler. 1940. gift of an anonymous donor. 1996; Girl Reading the Post. 1941. gift of the Walt Disney Family. 1999; Portrait o(Jowaharlal Nehru. 1963. gift of the Estates of George W. and Alice Gould Edman. by their sons. Talmage. Si las and Ross. 2000; Portrait o( Spencer Tracy. 1944. gift ofTheodore P. and Barbara A. Judd. 1998.

Special Events For your very special event, consider the Norman right atmosphere to make your event long remembered. Rockwell Museum and its picturesque grounds as the Add something extra to your event by incorporating the perfect location to entertain your clients and guests. exhibitions by Norman Rockwell and other notable illus­ Located on a scenic 36-acre site in Stockbridge, Massa­ trators. Norman Rockwell's studio and the sculptures by chusetts, the Norman Rockwell Museum overlooks the Rockwell's son, Peter, which dot the landscape, will be of Housatonic River Valley and provides the perfect back­ interest to your guests and add an extra dimension to drop for all your special occasions. your event.

From dinner parties, retirement parties, fundraisers and Call Dana Audia, Manager of External Relations and weddings to corporate receptions, meetings and confer­ Special Events, at 413.298.4100, ext. 237 to discuss ways to ences, the 27,OOO-square-foot Museum provides just the make your next event unforgettable.

7 Linda Pero, Curator of Norman Rockwell Collection

The museum has been fortunate to receive a gift of an original 1929 Saturday Evening Post cover painting from the family of John W. Hanes of Virginia and New York. The 44 x 33-inch oil on canvas is an important example of the sub-genre of Dicken­ sian motifs that Rockwell repeatedly explored and revisited over the course of his long illustration career.

As the Post cover illustration of December 7,1929, Merrie Christmas was the first of three consecutive Christmas covers that year. The two that followed featured E.M. Jackson's Merrie Christmas, ill ustrated by Norman Rockwell , o il Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig, on canvas, The Saturday Evening Post. December 8, il lustrated by Arthur Rackham, A Christmas Carol, 1915. picture of a colonial servant carrying 1928. © 1928 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, two elaborately decorated candelabra Indianapolis. IN. All rights reserved. and a J,e. Leyendecker image of Eliz­ modeling a Santa hat and beard, to collection of vintage clothing and abethan carolers. It was not unusual more solidly traditional themes as props with which to accessorize his for the Post to publish two or three Santa consulting his list of "good" period narratives. covers in the month of December children or Santa at his globe chart­ related to the holiday season. ing his Christmas Eve itinerary. There From the abundance of Dickensian is a sense in these early years that subjects, it is clear that these were When Rockwell began working for Rockwell purposely avoided any among Rockwell's favorites. He seems the Post in 1916, the "Christmas appearance of upstaging Leyendecker, to have paralleled (or perhaps never Number" was published on or shortly his illustration idol. separated) in his imagination Dickens's before the 25th of each December characterizations with his own notions and was most often the work of vet­ In time, a rhythm emerged in of the genre. eran illustrator J.e. Leyendecker. In Rockwell's Christmas covers of alter­ fact, Leyendecker had been granted nating images among a traditional In 1928, Rockwell produced a Post the "Christmas Number" since 1905, Santa, a Colonial American subject cover of a jolly couple dancing under a decade before Rockwell began his and a character or vignette gleaned mistletoe, a direct descendent of Post career. Once on the rotation from the stories of Charles Dickens. Victorian illustrations of Mr. and however, Rockwell comfortably fell No doubt, many of the portrayals Mrs. Fezziwig from Dickens's A into a routine of sharing this envied derive from long-standing memories Christmas Carol. From Rockwell's spot with Leyendecker. This elevated deeply etched in Rockwell's aesthetic avowal of admiration of his employ­ standing emboldened his work and psyche from many readings of Dick­ er, the Post's then managing editor he moved from unassuming anec­ ens's stories and classic tales by Wash­ George Horace Lorimer, we may dotal themes, such as a store clerk ington Irving. Rockwell amassed a gather that Rockwell is celebrating

8 the goodness and benevolence of In books read to him by his father, catured, the flesh and blood realism Lorimer in his portrayal of Fezziwig, Rockwell grew up seeing the illustra­ of Merrie Christmas is so convincing a character who symbolized those tions of H.K. Browne, known by his that one feels he views Dickens's attributes to Dickens. moniker "Phiz." The Posthumous world as fact rather than fiction. Papers of the Pickwick Club, originally In the following year, 1929, Rockwell published as a monthly serial in the Rockwell must have yearned to have a interprets the character of Tony Morning Chronicle newspaper (1836 commission to illustrate Dickens's Weller from Dickens's Pickwick to 1837), was conceived as a vehicle books, knowing his empathy and Papers for the December 7th cover. for the drawings of the popular artist predilection for the characters and Tony Weller is father of Sam Weller, Robert Seymour. After Seymour the embedded messages. However, it Pickwick's manservant. Witty, cun­ committed suicide, just before the is within Rockwell's character to feel ning and loyal, Sam is known, as is second chapter of the Papers was that he could never compete with the his father, for peppering his speech published, H. K. Browne assumed classic illustrations of H. K. Browne, with familiar sayings followed by Seymour's commission and went on George Cruikshank, C. E. Brock and facetious ascriptions. Examples of to do the illustrations for most of F. O. C. Darley. this proverb genre, which came to be Dickens's later works. known as a Wellerism, include, "It's Two years after the Post's Merrie over, and can't be helped, and that's In 1946, Rockwell based his Post cover Christmas, an excerpt from Pickwick one consolation, as they always say in of a boy in a dining car on Browne's Papers, with Rockwell's interpretation Turkey, ven they cuts the wrong drawing of The Friendly Waiter and I of the text, was published in Ladies' man's head off," and ''Avay with from David Copperfield. Browne's lin­ Home Journal. The scene is of two melencholly, as the little boy said ven ear engravings perfectly construed gentlemen toasting the season in a his school-missis died." Tony Weller is the personality and humor of each stagecoach station tavern. a portly and robust coachman situation, whereas Rockwell's full­ described as "uncommon fat." He color renderings, though issuing from Christmas was close at hand in all his wears top boots, a broad-brimmed Browne's concepts, bear little resem­ bluff and hearty honesty; it was the hat and a tile-green shawl. "On the blance to his artwork. Unlike many of season of hospitality, merriment, and stagebox he is a king, elsewhere he is Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post cov­ open-heartedness; the old year was a mere greenhorn." ers, in which people are slightly cari- preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound offeasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away ... how many old recollections, and how many dormant sympathies does Christmas time awaken!

Merrie Christmas, an embodiment of Norman Rockwell's imaginative jour­ ney with Victorian literature, will serve to awaken the sentiments of the Christmas season of visitors to the Norman Rockwell Museum for gen­ erations to come. The collection is greatly enhanced by its addition and we are truly grateful to the family of To Father Christmas, illustrated by Norman Rockwell, oil Sam Weller Writes a Valentine , illustrated by H. K. Browne, The Posthu­ on canvas, Ladies' Home Journal. 1931 • mous Papers of the Pickwick Club, 1836. John W. Hanes.

9 Reintroducing Norman Rockwell

Robert Rosenblum, Professor of the traumatic realities of desegrega­ Fine Arts, New York University, and tion in the South. Beginning with Curator of Twentieth-Century Art, quaint myths of American innocence, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York when the most shocking crime was a bunch of Booth Tarkington kids who Norman Rockwell keeps pricking my dare to ignore a "No Swimming" art-historical conscience. First, there sign, we end up in a world so ugly was the Wadsworth Atheneum, in that ... in Rockwell's The Problem 1985, where, to my disbelief, I saw We All Live With, an immaculately hanging, right in the midst of Picasso, dressed little black girl named Ruby Mondrian, and Miro, a picture of a Bridges has to be accompanied to spunky little girl, smiling proudly her New Orleans school daily under over her newly acquired black eye as the protection of four U.S, marshals, she waits outside the principal's office while white crowds threaten and jeer. for her comeuppance. An adventur­ Rockwell may have agonized about Murder in Mississippi. oil on canvas. Look magazine, ous new curator, Gregory Hedberg, unpublished version for April 20, 1965, story illustration. being more of an illustrator than a had elevated this Rockwell canvas © 1965 by The Norman Rockwell Family Trust. "fine" artist, but his best work, such All rights reserved. from the storeroom to the twentieth­ as this outing of a hideous American century pantheon upstairs, and there formed a mind-boggling abundance secret, makes such hierarchies as it stuck out like a sore but mesmeriz­ of tiny observations-a choice of tie, irrelevant as the old-fashioned ing thumb. I had been taught to look an upholstery pattern, a hairdo, a prejudice that photography must be down my nose at Rockwell, but then, plate of celery-into essential props a lower art than painting. Who can I had to ask myself why. If it had for the story told ... , forget the shrill contrast of this tidy, already become respectable to scruti­ regimented march to school against nize and admire the infinite detail, We are learning that there are many a city wall bearing the partly effaced dramatic staging, narrative intrigues, fresh approaches to Rockwell, even graffiti scrawl "nigger" (which paral­ and disguised symbols of Victorian psychobiographical ones .... But the lels the artist's signature below, genre paintings, why couldn't the most fruitful context for Rockwell is rendered in mock-schoolboy, lower­ same standards apply here? probably the big saga of twentieth­ case penmanship) and the remnants century American history, in both the of a tomato that's just been hurled, I shelved the question until 1996, headlines and the small print. In liter­ a visceral burst of skin and pulp when, almost by accident, I passed by ature, Rockwell takes us from Horatio that looks like the bloody aftermath Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Alger to Sinclair Lewis; in architec­ of a firing squad? Or perhaps the thought I'd like to see Robert A.M. ture and design, from the colonial wall looks like a painting by Cy Stern's 1993 shrine to Rockwell and, revival, .. to George Nelson's Brave Twombly, one of those occasional while there, the art as well. .. . Inside, New World interiors and the Eames shocks of familiarity that helps without the distractions of modern chair; in social history, from the advice place Rockwell within expectations art, I became an instant convert to of Saturday Evening Post editor George of twentieth-century art .... And for the enemy camp, wondering how Horace Lorimer "never to show a new kind of spine-chilling social anybody but the most bigoted mod­ colored people [on the Posts cover 1 realism, his Murder in Mississippi, an ernist could resist not only the except as servants" to the conscious­ eerily lit document of the murder of mimetic magic of these paintings, but ness-raising images Rockwell made three civil-rights activists in Missis­ the no-less-magical way they trans- for Look in the 1960s documenting sippi, previews both Mark Tansey's

This article is excerpted from the exhibition catalogue Pictures for the American People with permission from the author. 10 Tour Itinerary for Norman Rockwell: Pictures lor the American People www.rockwelltour.org

November 6, 1999-January 30, 2000 painted sepia photographs and far enough away from World War II to High Museum of Art Leon Golub's close-up accounts of relish nostalgically some cheerleading 1280 Peachtree Street, N.E. contemporary brutality. from the home front, Rockwell offers A~anta , GA 30309 Rosie the Riveter, in which Michelan­ 404-733-4400 general information Such connections may be fortuitous, gelo's Isaiah becomes a muscular, www.high.org but there is no doubt that Rockwell ... lipsticked redhead equipped with february 26-May 21, 2000 demonstrated again and again that he a lunch box, a phallic rivet gun, a Chicago Historical Society was knowledgeable about museum­ white-bread ham sandwich, and a Clark Street at North Avenue worthy traditions and even the latest copy of Mein Kampfkept underfoot. Chicago, IL 60614-6099 mode in modern art, which lured These days, gallons of academic ink 312-642-4600 general information him to Paris in 1923. His Triple Self­ could be spilled over the feminist www.chicagohs.org Portrait tells all: a bitter sweet joke of issues foreshadowed in this campy the lightweight Yankee facing not only icon of macho womanhood at war. June 17-September 24, 2000 his own bemused mirror image and The Corcoran Gallery of Art 500 17th Street, N.W. a big white canvas, but also a tacked­ It's a tribute to Rockwell's diverse Washington, D.C. 20006-4804 on anthology of small reproductions powers that his art now seems to 202-639-1700 general information offering noble precedents for self­ look in so many directions, including www.corcoran.org portraiture-Durer, Rembrandt, transatlantic ones . ... Back on this van Gogh, and, most surprising, a par­ side of the Atlantic, his art gains new Odober 28-December 31,2000 ticularly difficult Picasso that mixes dimensions when seen in the context San Diego Museum of Art an idealized self-portrait in profile with of not only his commercial contempo­ 1450 EI Prado, Balboa Park an id-like female monster attacking raries, such as the illustrator J.e. San Diego, CA 92112-2107 619-232-7931 general information from within .... And if Rockwell Leyendecker, but also later populist www_sdmart.org nodded humbly in Picasso's direction, artists such as Ben Shahn, whose there's no doubt that Mondrian played social evangelism Rockwell would _ar, 27-May 6, 2001 a role, too, in a work like Shuffleton's eventually share. But the larger point Phoenix Art Museum Barbershop, which offers an almost is that, just in time for the new millen­ 1625 N. Central Avenue humorous marriage of the modern nium, we may have a new Rockwell. Phoenix, AZ 85004-1685 Dutch master's severely rectilinear and Now that the battle for modern art 602-257-1880 general information asymmetrical geometries, translated has ended in a triumph that took www.phxart.org into the perpendicular mullions of a place in another century, the twentieth, .... 9-Odober 21, 2001 Rockwell's work may become an barbershop window, to the American The Norman Rockwell Museum version of Dutch seventeenth-century indispensable part of art history. The 9 Glendale Road, Rt. 183 realism, with a view through the dark­ sneering, puritanical condescension Stockbridge, MA 01262 ened barbershop to bright, distant with which he was once viewed by 413-298-4100 general information room where, after hours, the locals serious art lovers can swiftly be turned www.nrm.org relax with amateur music-making... . into pleasure. To enjoy his unique genius, all you have to do is relax. 1Iov .... 3, 2OO1-..dl3, 2002 But I, for one, am happy now to love SoIoIIoI R. 8...... Rockwell for his own sake, and not The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 fIfIIa __ because he learned some tricks from New York, is the final venue for the New y.... NY 10128 Mondrian and other artists repre­ exhibition Norman Rockwell: Pictures for 212·423·3500 &3600 general information sented in museums .... And if we are the American People. www.guggenheim.org

Background: Lillcoln for tile Defellse, oil on canvas, Saturday Evenil/g Post, february 10, 1962, story illustration. Norman Rockwell lvluseum Art Collection Trust. ------a.nd ------,,;t ------Deborah Solomon, author and art critic

Patriotic art has never exactly ranked high on the list of Yet the events of September 11 and the weeks since have aesthetic wonders, but who can doubt its appeal? It is hard brought a sudden relevance and even respect to long-dis­ to think of a painting in an American museum that can credited images. The most striking example is the picture compete for visual immediacy with that famous image of by Thomas E. Franklin, a 35-year-old staff photographer Uncle Sam pointing his finger and sternly admonishing, "I for The Bergen Record that recently appeared on front Want You." The World War I recruiting poster is an inadver­ pages around the world and made the cover of Newsweek. tent classic of American art, evoking the intense and tragic By now, you have seen it: Three firefighters, their clothes years when a generation of young men put on uniforms, and black helmets shiny with ash, gaze into a squinty­ boarded trains and promised their moms they'd be back bright sky as they hoist a flag above the rubble of the soon, while knowing they might never be back at all. World Trade Center.

Not long after the twin towers fell and the tears started The image became an overnight icon, and not only flowing, New York magazine ran a humorous cover illus­ because it attests to the self-sacrificing courage of firemen. tration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani decked out as It also sends us back in time, evoking classic scenes of Uncle Sam. You can glance nearly anywhere these days soldiers in battle. One thinks, in particular, of the photo­ and see that patriotism has its own look, its own iconog­ graph of Iwo Jima taken on February 23, 1945-the four raphy, its own repertory of time-honored images. It is marines huddled together as they raise a flag above the odd to think that my generation, the first for whom island, their bodies and outstretched arms forming a pyra­ avant-garde art was not a moral offense but a subject to mid that itself harks back to the balanced forms of Renais­ be diligently studied in college, now finds itself mesmer­ sance sculpture. ized by the landscape of patriotism. We who wrote term papers on Andy Warhol's soup cans and barely bothered Not surprisingly, the photograph of Iwo Jima was later to look at any flag that did not bear the signature of revealed to have been staged; it was taken a short time Jasper Johns are turning for solace to pictorial representa­ after the actual event occurred. Some people felt that tions of honor, country and heroism that were born made it fraudulent and also discredited the statue that before we were. was based on it, a mammoth bronze memorial that stands west of Arlington National Cemetery and remains the For years, of course, such themes were disdained as artis­ best-known monument of World War II. But such think­ tically incorrect. The "American Century," whose advent ing is foolish. If art is a lie that tells the truth, as Picasso was loudly proclaimed after 1945, took its cultural cue once said, the Iwo Jima memorial certainly qualifies. not from Peoria, but from Paris. It treated modernism as an assault on bourgeois values, and defined the archetypal What, exactly, is patriotic art? In contrast to the School of American artist as a Jackson Pollock sort, a moody genius Paris (think Picasso) or the School of New York (think splashing out abstract pictures. Patriotic art, in the mean­ Pollock), patriotic art might be regarded as the school of time, was presumed to refer to bronze statues of soldiers Washington, confining itself to eye-catching images that on horses, as stiff as mannequins and equally oblivious to promote American institutions. It is commonly maligned the temper of the times. To proclaim an unironic interest as propaganda. It reached an apogee during World War I, in such art was to invite sneers from sophisticates and to when the federal government, seeking to mold opinion in be written off as a visual illiterate. a country where radio and television were not yet available,

This article is reprinted from The New York Times, with permission from the author.

12 **** **** enlisted visual artists to dogs and un cranky grand­ advertise its cause. What they mothers might be viewed as were selling was not soap or normalcy incarnate. light bulbs, but the war effort and the government itself. That's certainly the subject of his Freedom From Fear The Division of Pictorial (1943), one in a quartet of Publicity, which was part of wartime paintings based on America's version of a propa­ President Roosevelt's rousing ganda ministry, wallpapered words. It shows two children buildings and streets across snug in bed, their mother the country with tens of stooping to pull up their thousands of posters, the blanket, their father looking most popular of which on, holding a newspaper depicted Uncle Sam and his whose partially visible head­ pointing fmger. line announces news of "bombing" and "horror" Freedam (rom Fear, oil on canvas, Saturday Evening Pas~ 1943, caver. © 1943 SEPS: That poster, by the way, was licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved. abroad. To see the painting created in 1917 by James today is to see six decades Montgomery Flagg, a prodigiously gifted illustrator who, slip away. We know now what it means to crave freedom in some ways, was an unlikely patriot. Flagg was a vivid from fear, the freedom to walk kids to school and toss a character, a New York bohemian with striking features and baseball in a park without feeling a shadow of trepidation a predilection for blond show girls. Unknown to the darken the face of American democracy. American public, he used himself as the model for his Uncle Sam. His recruiting poster takes an amorous come­ It would be absurd to pretend that patriotic art can give on ("I Want You") and turns it into a patriotic come-on. form to the full range and depth of human emotion. It cannot. It captures mainly one emotion-an appreciation Henry James once observed that Americans have "the for the values and rituals of American life. A few months reputation of always boasting and blowing and waving ago that may have sounded corny, but it no longer does. the American flag." Yet patriotic imagery need not be As we continue to try to lend shape to feelings of national festooned with stars and stripes. Norman Rockwell, who concern and affection, it would be a mistake to dismiss did more to visualize the aspirations of Americans than patriotic art as kitsch. It serves a purpose in the immediate any other artist of the 20th century, seldom painted the present and-to judge from the example of Uncle Sam, flag (as is evident in the current show of his work at the Iwo Jima and two kids tucked into bed-at times can Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York). Instead, prove as enduring as any museum masterpiece. he painted a country whose spirit remained abundantly intact despite two world wars and the Great Depression. In a time when anthrax attacks only intensify our yearn­ Deborah Solomon, a 2001 Guggenheim fellow, is writing a ing to return to normalcy, Rockwell's pictures of kids, biography of Norman Rockwell.

13 Visitors in the gall eries

Geoffrey, Cynthia and Mary Rockwell Trustee Ell en Kahn and son Mi chael Piderit

Peter and Cynthia Rockwell News Across the Nation

Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum On November 17,2001, the Norman Rockwell Museum had a great reason to celebrate, The national exhibition opened in New York City at the Solomon R, Guggenheim Museum, Over 250 celebrants gathered at the museum, designed by the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, to see the Rockwell paiJltings on exhjbi­ Caroline and Jack Batty, Museum Director Laurie Norton tion on the second and fourth-floor wings, Co-curator Maureen Hart Hennessey, Norman Moffatt and Li la and Peter Berle Rockwell Museum, with Solomon R. Guggenheim Decorative votive candles set a scene that was Museum curators Robert Rosenblum, Curator of further enhanced by sumptuous desserts, wines Twentieth Century Art, and Assistant Curator and a great jazz band, Below are scenes from Vivien Greene this memorable evening,

Enjoying the exhibition

Jo hn and Pamela Deely Van De Loo

Trustee Lee Williams, Mu seum Di recto r Laurie Jane and Jack Fitzpatrick Norton Moffatt, and Jo hn Konwiser

Norman Rod '1JJel/: Pic/m 'cs for tbe A'lIlC' ";Cn 71 People is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta ,-~,. and th e N orman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge. I . T he exhibition and its nati onal tour are made possible by Ford Motor Company. Trustee Jay Ireland, Debra and Richard de Bart and Ann Fitzpatrick Brown The exhibition and its accompanyi ng ca talogue are also made possible by The I-IeI1lY Luce Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Curtis Publis hing Company and The N orman Rockwell Estate Licensin g Company. Co-curator Maureen Hart Hennessey, Peter Rockwell , Richard and Mary Ke ll y Fidelity nInvestments ·

Education programs for th e nati onal tour <'Irc made poss ible by Fideli ty Inveslmcnrs through the Fid eli ty f oundati o n.

14 Scenes from the November 3 opening of Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle: The Art of Charles Schulz at the Norman Rockwell Museum Visitors of all ages enjoy the Schulz exhibition.

Director Laurie Norton Moffatt and Jan Elliot, creator of the comic strip Stone Soup

------Maya at MASS MoCA------

MASS MoCA, the Dorothys. The artist claims Massachusetts Museum that, "When you look at all of Contemporary Art in these toys, you realize that North Adams, Massachu­ we, as a society, don't setts, has commissioned always know what we are a work from Jarvis Rockwell doing. There are a lot of for its exhibition Game different desires and Show. Comparisons dreams out here." between Jarvis and his father, Norman Rockwell, The word "Maya" is of are inevitable if somewhat Sanskrit origin. It refers to impossible- illusion vs. the powerful force of a god illustration. One presents a or demon that transforms complicated magical world filled with illusion and a spiritual concept into a form of the sensible world. This contradiction, the other a narrative realistic view of the force creates the illusion that the world we know through American scene. our senses and experiences-rather than through logic or intuition-is the real world. Jarvis recently traveled to India where he visited the great temples of Chennai and Delhi. Seeing the vast number of The work Maya is proof of the unlimited scope of Hindu gods and goddesses along the tiered steps of the the infinite imagination of Jarvis Rockwell. The artist temples reminded him of his own large collection of himself becomes the powerful force that transforms the action figures, which he has been amassing since 1979. The spiritual "god concept" into a recognizable world of connection was clear. Jarvis created his own temple, with familiar toy figures. However, just when the viewer toy figures replacing the spiritual gods, and has these approaches an understanding of the work, something figures ascend a great pyramid. jarring will leap forth and rearrange any thought grounded in reality. The result is a large multi-tiered wooden pyramid, with each tier containing hundreds of bright plastic figures, Also on exhibition by the artist are twelve dioramas of These figures hold a fascination for the artist. By placing action figures that depict rather disturbing views of them in a dramatic staging, Jarvis creates a bizarre world. domestic life, portraits of some of Rockwell's favorite It is up to the viewer to find meaning in a phalanx of action figures and photographs of his work. Maya is on police officers meeting The Wizard of Ois multiple view at MASS MoCA through April.

15 Jo Ann Losinger, Read All About Rockwell Director of Earned Revenue There are two new Norman Rockwell archives, the artist's private journals and man himself. Norman Rockwell-A Life biographies-one just published and one conducted hundreds of interviews, retails for $35 through the Norman due next year. One might well ask the including gathering the personal remem­ Rockwell Museum store. questions Why Rockwell? and Why now? brances of the three Rockwell sons. Research for the biographies coincided The reader will discover the disparity with the excitement generated by the between the artist's private life and the way national exhibition Norman Rockwell: he was perceived by the public. Rockwell Pictures for the American People. is presented as a man who attempted to The American public and art critics are hold in check his lifelong depression and in the process of rediscovering the work who struggled through three complicated of Norman Rockwell, and with that marriages, a distant relationship with his comes the inevitable interest in the artist children and his complete dependence himself. Perhaps it is because of Rockwell's upon the work he so loved. critical neglect that, before now, biogra­ Norman Rockwell emerges from these phers have not chosen him as the subject pages as an intelligent, highly talented and of an in-depth serious work. often tormented artist. This well-drawn In Norman Rockwell-A Life, Laura portrait is a far cry from the widely held Claridge presents new perspective into image of a sentimental, folksy, country Rockwell's life and his art. Claridge, a for­ illustrator. Laura Claridge makes clear mer professor of English literature at the the fact that Rockwell's art was masterly, U.S. Naval Academy, researched the family complex and sophisticated-just like the

Members! Remember, you receive a 10% discount!

NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION - u.s. POSTAGE The PAID Norman Permit No. 33 Rockwell STOCKBRIDGE MA 01262 Museum at Stockbridge

Stockbridge, MA 01262

www.normanrockwellmuseum.org