American Chronicles is a major exhibition of Norman Rockwell’s art which is touring nationally. It provides a rare opportunity to see an extensive collection of original paintings, illustrations and archival studio material from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Best known for his magazine covers, especially those he created for The Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell (1894-1978) painted nostalgic images of American life in the 20th century. His pictures represent feelings of innocence, hope, courage and change.

With a career that spanned 65 years, Rockwell illustrated pivotal moments in American history – including scenes from World War II and documentation of the Civil Rights movement – and created loving scenarios of everyday life. The exhibit includes such iconic works as Triple Self-Portrait (1959), and the famous suite of four paintings inspired by Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union Address, Four Freedoms (1943). Later in Rockwell’s career, he captured the serious realities of desegregation in the American south in works like The Problem We All Live With (1964), which depicted a young African-American girl walking to school among white federal marshals past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.

As a visual storyteller and commercial illustrator, Rockwell was not regarded as a fine artist in his lifetime by critics of the world of modern art. His work took place within an era of rapidly developing mass media, deeming his artwork synonymous with the popular visual culture of the 20th century.

Allyn Cantor