• Norman Rockwell

  • Jan 26 2025
  • Length: 4 mins
  • Podcast

Norman Rockwell

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  • Showcasing American artist Norman Rockwell's journey from the covers of the Saturday Evening Post to Look magazine. Norman Rockwell became extremely famous in the United States as a key illustrator for a magazine called the Saturday Evening Post. He thought of himself as a storyteller. His paintings were not just pictures. He wanted them to show settings that were very human. And sometimes, settings that involved deeper and more complicated emotions that defied being put into words. By the early 1960s however the Post had changed its focus. More and more, its cover illustrations were portraits of celebrities. Rockwell didn’t want to do that. After his paintings had graced a whopping 323 covers of the magazine, he stepped away from it for good. Rockwell’s final cover illustration on an issue of the Saturday Evening Post appeared at the end of May 1963. He wanted a different outlet for his work, done the way he wanted to do it, and he found it in a magazine called Look. When President Lyndon Johnson took up the cause of civil rights after President Kennedy was assassinated, Rockwell picked up the cause as well. After he left the Post, writes his biographer, “Rockwell began treating his work as a vehicle for progressive causes.” His first illustration in Look magazine appeared in the January 14, 1964, issue. It portrayed an event that had happened over three years earlier in New Orleans. It showed federal marshals escorting a little girl named Ruby Bridges to an otherwise all white elementary school, protecting her from a mob that wanted to block school integration. He titled the painting “The Problem We All Live With.” It’s a moving work that portrays segregation and prejudice, a far cry from the sentimental scenes of Americana that first brought him fame. Years ago, Stephen Heyde, the former Conductor and Music Director of the Waco Symphony Orchestra, told me that “art has the power to be the conscience of a society.” And this is what Rockwell sought to create. By the 60s, the emotions he sought to convey in this art were ones rooted in society’s problems and injustices. If you can imagine how incensed people would be if Rockwell’s piece were removed from an exhibit so no one would be offended by it, you can begin to understand some of the more recent controversies. Art is stronger than mere words. Art can vividly distill complexities that we sometimes would prefer to skim over. Many artists believe their works are, in a way, supposed to offend people because that is what inevitably happens when injustice is illuminated by art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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