NORMAN ROCKWELLS AMERICA . IN ENGLAND. National Museum of American Illustration and Dulwich Picture Gallery

Norman Rockwell's America ...In England exhibits a remarkable collection of select original works spanning six decades, providing a comprehensive look at his career and including all of his vintage Saturday Evening Post covers.
Rockwell's heart-warming depictions of everyday life made him the best-known and most beloved American artist of the 20th century. He lived and worked through some of the most eventful periods in the nation's history, and his paintings vividly chronicled those times. They serve as a mirror of American life, reflecting not only who Americans were, but also what they thought - and what some may have subconsciously endeavored to become.
He was a storyteller when so-called "serious" art was neither narrative nor representational. His painted stories were folksy, humorous, and often topical, but Rockwell was more than just a chronicler of the times. He had a genius for knowing which stories to tell, ow to tell the, and which details to emphasize in order to strengthen a message. It has been said that a Rockwell painting requires neither explanation nor caption nor title. It speaks to us directly: a whole story in a single image. Consequently, Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers may be his greatest legacy.
Some art critics have called his art too sentimental to be taken seriously, but the fact that his work continues to resonate and find new audience in the 21st century says something else. There is universality to his appeal, suggesting that Rockwell's real subjects were not simply "grandfathers, puppy dogs, stuff like that," as the artist one said, but something larger, if less tangible. This exhibition provides the opportunity to experience Rockwell close-up and marvel at his painterly and technical skills.
Norman Rockwell's America ...In England asserts his place as a great illustrator/artist and suggests his most enduring subject was the American Spirit.
This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition by the same title, on view at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, England (December 15, 2010 - March 27, 2011) and at the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, RI, USA (May 30 - September 5, 2011).