The America of Norman Rockwell - Exhibition

Norman Rockwell is without a doubt one of the most instantly-recognizable illustrators around the world. His illustrations for the covers of the Saturday Evening Post, A Boy's Life, Look, Life, and McCall's magazines, among others, became icons of an era, classics that portrayed a lifestyle now gone.
 

Nowadays his original works, charged with nostalgia and traditionalism, are considered appetizing collection pieces for museums and independent collectors around the world.
 

Seizing on the reopening of museums in France after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the International Center of Drawing of Saint Just Le Martel, renders homage to this renown American artist with the exhibition “The America of Norman Rockwell”, an ample retrospective of his published works between the 1920's and the 1960's. 

Conformed by over 900 pieces, amid original magazine covers, posters, photographs, archival documents, reproductions, and other articles, most of them loaned by the collector Serge Henriot, this exhibit presents a wide vision of the work of Rockwell in diverse areas.

Divided in different sections by theme, the exhibit focuses on Rockwell's peculiar narrative style to present everyday life scenes of the American way of life.

With a style sometimes considered maudlin, due to his tendency to idealization, Rockwell often used humor, bestowing his images with a vitality and a charm many times imitated but rarely equaled.

And yet, amid the hundreds of playful images full of comic panache, five of the most powerful works of Rockwell capture our attention: “The Four Freedoms” (1943), and “The problem we all live with” (1960).
 

"The Four Freedoms" is composed of four separate paintings, based on the four freedoms proclaimed by the American president Theodore Roosevelt : Freedom of Worship, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Want and Freedom of fear. 

Rockwell finished the four canvases in 1943, and they were all published as magazine covers by the Washington Evening Post.

"Freedom of Worship" (1943)

Published as the cover for the Washington Evening Post magazine, "The problem we all live with" depicts little Ruby Bridges, one of the first African American children to enter the segregated school system in 1960 in the south of the United States, having to be escorted by security guards in order to get safe to her classes. 

Her white dress and calm poise contrast starkly with the violence splashed around her.

"The problem we all live with" (1964)

These works demonstrate Rockwell’s deep human vision and huge narrative talent, capable of transmitting values and emotions through simple images, though charged with realism and dignity. 

With these, the artist shows that his illustrations go beyond light scenes and idealized images, presenting poetic scenes not in the least less powerful in their message. 

Although this exhibition does not contain original artworks, the reproduction size of many of them allow us to admire the fine drawing and paintwork of this renown artist.
 

The exhibition will be open until August 19th, 2021. Please check with the centre regarding the sanitary accessibility measures.

 

Event: “L’Amerique de Norman Rockwell” - exhibition.
Venue: International Center of Drawing Saint Juste Le Martel, Espace Loup
Dates: May 19th, 2021 - August 13th, 2021
Hours: Monday through Friday: 9:00 am - 12:00; 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm / Saturdays (from July 1st): 10:00 am -12:00 ; 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Address:  7 Route du Château d'Eau, 87590 Saint-Just-le-Martel, France.
Cost: 3€
More information (in French): https://centredessinpresse-stjust.com/events/lamerique-de-norman-rockwell/