Norman Rockwell Museum Opens Two Major Retrospectives for 40th Anniversary
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. - A major retrospective of Norman Rockwell’s work, covering the full sweep of the beloved artist and icon-maker’s 65-year career, opens on July 4 at Norman Rockwell Museum. American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell is a 10-city traveling exhibition organized by the Museum in response to nationwide demand for Rockwell’s art.The return of the exhibition to Stockbridge for the Museum’s 40th anniversary summer is a landmark occasion to see the iconic works that form the core of the Museum’s collections reunited in a single exhibition, interpreted and contextualized by new scholarship. After the summer, American Chronicles resumes its national tour, where it has drawn record-setting crowds, and continues traveling into 2013.
“Forty years ago, public demand and affection for Norman Rockwell’s art compelled the creation of our Museum,” says Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director/CEO of Norman Rockwell Museum. “Now, 40 years later, unabated public enthusiasm inspires us to share our collection and Rockwell’s legacy with the nation’s art museums. We embrace our role as stewards of a national treasure, and are delighted to bring that national treasure home to Stockbridge for the 40th anniversary of a Museum that arose and grew from public affection and was built by the citizen-leaders of our town.”
American Chronicles showcases Rockwell’s unforgettable American panorama, from scenes of childhood innocence—and gentle depictions of innocence lost—to the wrenching Murder in Mississippi (1965), the artist’s response to the slaying of three civil rights workers. The exhibition features more than 70 works from Norman
Rockwell Museum’s collections, including oil paintings and preparatory sketches, as well as archival photographs and documents that illuminate the artist’s process. It is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue featuring in-depth scholarship by longtime Curator of Rockwell Collections Linda Szekely Pero, now Curator Emerita.
"Rockwell's art speaks eloquently to the core of who are as a nation," says Norton Moffatt. "In reflecting our fundamental resilience, strength, optimism, decency, and compassion, it is art for our time, and for all time."
"In the 20th century, illustrators played an essential role in sustaining the American spirit during times of hardship,” notes Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Norman Rockwell Museum. “Rockwell created images that showed the nation what it was fighting for during World War II, and appealed to Americans’ sense of empathy and justice during the civil rights era. His artwork remains just as relevant during today’s difficult times."
American Chronicles on Tour, 2009-2013
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
March 8, 2009 through May 31, 2009
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
November 14, 2009 through February 7, 2010
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas
March 6, 2010 through May 30, 2010
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
November 6, 2010 through January 30, 2011
Tacoma Art Museum, Washington
February 26, 2011 through May 30, 2011
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
November 2011 through 2012
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
November 10, 2012 through February 2, 2013
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
March 2013 through May 2013
American Chronicles began its tour in 2007. Previous venues include the Akron Art Museum in Ohio; the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida; and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.
The museum is open year-round from May through October from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Museum admission is $15 for adults, $10 for students, and $13.50 for seniors. Children and teens 18 and under are admitted free. For additional information, call 413-298-4100, Ext. 221, or visit www.nrm.org.
