Describe Norman Rockwell Paintings
Normal Rockwell was a famous artist and illustrator known for his classic American images of family, childhood, and even human rights in the Four Freedoms series. He continued to paint representational images throughout the golden age of Abstract Expressionism in America. He produced a great volume of work, much of which appeared in magazines and advertisements and can now be found in museum collections across the country.
Instructions
Thinking About Norman Rockwell Paintings
1. Is Norman Rockwell an artist or an illustrator? This is a debate commonly held about a variety of artists. An illustrator typically places more emphasis on narrative rather than abstract design or formal elements. Norman Rockwell wanted his paintings to get a point across. For example, in the Four Freedoms series, each painting illustrates or represents one of the four essential human rights identified by President Franklin Roosevelt in a 1941 speech: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. The images are conceived and executed in order to best represent these points. This evidence suggests that Rockwell is an illustrator, and one of the best in the history of American art.
2. When you describe or write about a Norman Rockwell painting, consider the narrative or principle driving the image and think about how Rockwell organized the image to illustrate that point. The painting "Connoisseur," for example, shows a man in a museum standing in front of what appears to be a Jackson Pollock painting. Rockwell's image is executed in a realist style, but shows an Abstract Expressionist painting in great detail. This painting might be a commentary on the value of Abstract Expressionism or simply an illustration of a trend in art.
3. Norman Rockwell sometimes worked from photographs. If you have the chance to compare a photograph that inspired him with his final painting, you will be able to discover a lot about the way Rockwell organized a picture. Perhaps he exaggerated certain details or edited out unnecessary information. To compare Rockwell's paintings with his photographs, look at the slideshow for "Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera" on Time Magazine's website (time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1943059,00.html).
