American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I thought this was a worthwhile overview of the life and work of Rockwell. Though it was published to coincide with an exhibition there are only five pages that relate to this in a checklist format of work. The rest of the book has three essays hung around New York, Vermont and Stockbridge where the artist lived and between these are pages of his work with detailed text.
Most of Rockwell's paintings in the book have been reproduced many times before but maybe not as well as here (with a 175 screen). What I did find new were several drawings and roughs from the early Fifties of Santa for Hallmark cards and a fascinating twenty-two page section on the background to Murder in Mississippi, a compelling painting completed in 1965. Included are letters, news clipping, reference photos for the two figures in the painting and painted roughs. Oddly Look Magazine, who commissioned the work, used a rather loose color study in the magazine rather than the finished work.
At the back of the book there are twenty-eight pages about Rockwell's various studios over the years with plenty of exterior and interior photos. All the paintings in the book are captioned with title, date and size. The size reference is interesting because Rockwell is seen as a realist painter, especially his Saturday Evening Post from the mid-forties but this is because when a canvas three or four feet deep is reduced to a magazine cover size (or as they appear in these pages) it concentrates all the detail to a near photographic feel. When you see a Rockwell painting close-up it clearly has a fine art look rather than a slick piece of commercial illustration.
Amazon lists plenty of books about this wonderful artist, many of them, I think, just seem to be cashing in on his name with poor selections and printing. This book should be included with the better ones because of its excellent editorial, design and printing.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

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American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell explores Norman Rockwell's unparalleled role as an American icon-maker and storyteller. The book, a catalogue to a special exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum, traces the evolution of Rockwell's art and iconography throughout his career-- from carefully choreographed reflections on childhood innocence in such paintings as No Swimming (1921) to powerful, consciousness-raising images like The Problem We All Live With (1964), which documented the traumatic realities of desegregation in the South. American Chronicles demonstrates how Rockwell's images provided Americans with a vocabulary for describing and celebrating themselves, their country, and their experiences in the twentieth century. Written in an engaging style and from an insider's point of view, the book begins with Rockwell's early life, student years, and career in Manhattan, Mamaroneck, and New Rochelle, New York. In subsequent chapters, the author explores Rockwell's life and artworks when he lived in Arlington, Vermont, and later in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he enjoyed the life of a famous working artist for his last 25 years. Of special interest to Rockwell aficionados will be the color reproductions of Rockwell's art, color-corrected to the Museum's original paintings. Readers will delight in an array of intriguing archival portraits of Rockwell throughout his life. Many of these images are being published for the first time, for they existed until now only as fragile negatives on acetate film in the Museum's archive. The creation of his 1965 painting Murder in Mississippi is told in step-by- step detail, illuminating the artist's working process. Research materials, handwritten notes, reference photographs, preliminary studies, the final painting, the published image in the magazine tear sheet, and portraits of the artist in the midst of creation all make for a captivating and in-depth documentation of Rockwell's working process and methods. The book concludes with 28 pages of rarely or never-before-seen black-and-white photographs of Rockwell's studios from the Museum's comprehensive photographic collection. Photographs by Rockwell's assistants Gene Pelham, Louie Lamone, and Bill Scovill capture the artist and his models at work during the height of his career.

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