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THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM GIVES ROCKWELL A ‘HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS’

Museum Explores the Masterpieces and Life-Long Achievements of America’s Premier Visual Storyteller

(Norfolk, VA)—He is probably best known for his ever-popular images featured on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post during the Pop Art era of the 1960s. Some may recognize his controversial masterpieces in Look magazine which served as powerful pleas for racial justice during the Civil Rights Movement. One thing is certain, however, Norman Rockwell created an enormous body of work including more than 4,000 images during his 65-year career—earning him an unparalleled legacy for his ability to see the “extraordinary” in moments others normally take for granted. Norman Rockwell chronicled Americana  on the covers and pages of the most prominent journals and successfully transformed images of everyday life into colorful, and sometimes comedic works of art that spoke to a transitioning America and served as a window into 20th-century life. Join the Chrysler Museum of Art as we proudly unveil American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 10 a.m.

American Chronicles features 41 oil paintings from all phases of Rockwell’s development, many of them made in preparation for his covers for the Post. They include paintings such as No Swimming, Girl at the Mirror, Going and Coming, and his Triple Self-Portrait. This exhibition also offers a selection of Rockwell’s drawings and posters including the famous Four Freedoms—designed to help sell American war bonds during World War II.

To commemorate his 47 years at the Post, the Chrysler will devote an entire gallery to all 323 covers created between 1916 and 1963—an accomplishment that made Rockwell a key player in the evolution of modern visual culture and an American household name. Week after week, Rockwell saluted the best of ordinary American life and did so with humor, compassion, and a profound respect for the “everyman.”

Not only does this exhibition demonstrate the artistic genius of one of America’s most beloved illustrators, but it also explores the process Rockwell used to create his one-of-a-kind masterpieces. The highly-acclaimed Murder in Mississippi, in which he protested the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers, serves as the focal point for this section. Visitors have the unique opportunity to trace the artist’s entire working method moving from preliminary sketches, to pencil and oil studies, and finally the published illustration shown in Look magazine.

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell offers a rich, in-depth survey of an American icon. For more than half a century, he presented us with images that captured the best of who we were, and when we fell short, reminded us of those distinctly American ideals—freedom, justice, equality—that could restore us to hope.

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell will be on view until February 1, 2009.

 

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell has been organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. American Chronicles has been made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Masterpieces Program.

Local presentation of the exhibition is made possible through the generous support of Dominion Enterprises, Dollar Tree Stores, Capital Group Companies the Home of American Funds, the Business Exhibition Council of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Dominion, Sotheby’s, and Linda H. Kaufman.

Publication support has been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Media sponsorship has been provided by the Curtis Publishing Company and by the Norman Rockwell Estate Licensing Company. Conservation support has been provided by the Stockman Family Foundation.

Members of the media in need of high-resolution images of the exhibition may contact the Office of Communications at 757.333.6295 or publicrelations@chrysler.org for more information.