Comments on: Norman Rockwell: The Outsider

By: thingyman

thingyman — Sat, 07 May 2011 22:44:00 +0000

If your primary concern when choosing a painting is idealistic non-conformity, an unappealing palette, and somewhat grotesque figures, I suppose that a painter like Hopper is a decent choice. If, however, you do not require a work of art to be shocking, outlandish, distant, edgy, or any number of other ideas which pervade modern art, I must argue that as Rockwell was:

(1) a technically superior painter to the vast majority of artists, drawing the eye into pieces with brilliant detail and wonderful, original use of colour, and

(2) able to tell a story as convincingly as some movie directors,

the paintings in which he actually conveys a message (The Problem We All Live With, Connisseur), as well as the ones simply used as vehicles for important matters (The Four Freedoms – propaganda, if you like, but for a war that was actually worth fighting) are examples of some of the finest, most important art ever created.

By: SELF DEVELOPMENT BLOG » New Issue of Escape into Life

SELF DEVELOPMENT BLOG » New Issue of Escape into Life — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:26:29 +0000

[...] In the meantime . . . check out the new issue of Escape into Life. Here are some highlights: Norman Rockwell: The Outsider . . . draws fascinating parallels between Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper, and Pieter Bruegel the [...]

By: Omg, it’s art! » Blog Archive » Lethe Bashar: Fascinating Parallels between Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. http://www.escapeintolife.com/essays/norman-rockwell-the-outsider/

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:11:40 +0000

[...] Artists | Comments (0) [...]

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:06:59 +0000

Hands down I would want a Breugel hanging on my wall. Norman Rockwell was an illustrator/graphic artist when he lived and worked, he painted an America that never existed–nothing has changed in that vein–Madison Ave feeds us glossy images of a life that doesn't exist, That being said Hopper was a fine artist/painter is his time and his America was one man's POV.

It's easy in retrospect to look at Rockwell as a painter now…he has a travelling museum show etc and there is nothing wrong with that, but we must remember to look at artists in their historical context. Since the 60s the line between advertising art and fine art has been blurred more often even though there are many artists who were who freely moved between the fine and commercial world throughout history such as Dali and Toulouse le Trec those were different times. Art like anything goes through trends and there was a trend that divided graphic artist and fine artists during the 20th century.

All that being said I would rather have an A.M. Cassandre hanging on my wall–one of the finest graphic artists to ever live.

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:06:59 +0000

All that being said I would rather have an A.M. Cassandre hanging on my wall–one of the finest graphic artists to ever live.

By: escapeintolife

escapeintolife — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:05:45 +0000

[...] Norman Rockwell: The Outsider . . . draws fascinating parallels between Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. [...]

By: Mark Kerstetter

Mark Kerstetter — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:10:21 +0000

I really enjoyed this essay, Tony. Readers might be interested to know that Dickens was one of Kafka's favorite writers and that DeKooning loved Rockwell. “Saying Grace” really is a fine picture. But you have said it well: Rockwell “sacrificed his exceptional talents to conformist ideas.” He will be important as someone who documented what average small town Americans thought of themselves, yet by that token the paintings have a certain ideological spin to them. The civil rights painting, for example, doesn't simply show a horror, it ostentatiously trumpets a white man's 'This is horrible!' This could be considered, if not in bad taste, then perhaps not in the best of taste. Yet a picture like this, as you have suggested, could do more to speak to the hearts of limited conservative minds than many other things.

You have shown, beginning with your bold title (“outsider” to whom?) that pictures, even when they are by Norman Rockwell, are never simple things.