Norman Rockwell Museum

 

 

Painting What Doesn’t Exist:
An Afternoon with James Gurney

 

Saturday, March 13, 1 - 4 p.m.

Award-winning fantasy artist and creator of Dinotopia, James Gurney, explores ways to incorporate detail and imagination into stunningly realistic fantasy settings. At 1 p.m., the artist will discuss the step-by-step techniques that have won him worldwide critical acclaim, followed by hands-on art making and a booksigning of Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. Free with Museum admission, kids and teens free.

About James Gurney:

James Gurney is the best-selling author and illustrator of the Dinotopia book series. He has worked on assignment as a National Geographic artist, and illustrated seventeen United States postage stamps, and numerous book covers. An accomplished, award-winning artist, Gurney is the recipient of many prestigious honors, including seven Chesley Awards from the Association of Fantasy Artists, two Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Convention, and Best of Show from the Art Director’s Club. Gurney’s art currently appears in museum exhibitions around the world, including the Norman Rockwell Museum traveling exhibition Dinotopia: The Fantastical Art of James Gurney.

Learn more about James Gurney through this video created for the 2006 Norman Rockwell Museum exhibition: www.artbabble.org/video/dinotopia-fantastical-art-james-gurney

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Norman Rockwell is returning to The Saturday Evening Post! The March/April edition of the magazine will look at the continued popularity and relevance of the artist in a cover story written by journalist Pamela Krol. According to Krol, “Rockwell’s work carved a unique niche’ in the American psyche and both stoked and affirmed our pride in who and what we are, when we are at our best. There was, and still is surprising power in that.”

The article looks at the success of such exhibitions as American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, and the upcoming Smithsonian exhibition Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with keeping Rockwell in the public eye, and presenting new interpretations of the artist’s work; interviews are included with Norman Rockwell Museum staff, as well as Ron Schick, the author and curator of Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera. Also included in the issue will be a gallery of Post covers from various artists, and articles on collecting original works.

In 1916, Norman Rockwell painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, which he considered to be the “greatest show window in America.” Over the next 47 years, 322 Rockwell covers would appear on the cover of the venerable publication.

Saturday Evening Post Web site: http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com

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Food For Thought: Hats Off!

Thursdays, March 18, 12:30 p.m.

Join Joyce K. Schiller, Ph.D., Norman Rockwell Museum Curator of the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, for a lively look at shifting trends in fashion, haberdashery, and furnishings of the 20th century America’s through Saturday Evening Post imagery. Bring lunch; beverages and dessert are provided.

 $6, $4 Museum members, or free with Museum admission.

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Image credit: “Daydreaming Bookkeeper,” Norman Rockwell, 1924. ©1924 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN.

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Norman Rockwell Museum announces a creative series of exhibitions, programs, and events planned for the month of March. Highlights include a painting workshop with Dinotopia
artist/creator James Gurney, an evening lecture with acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson, and a writing workshop with author/educator Vivian Dorsel.

Exhibitions

Norman Rockwell: A Life in Art
March 6 through June 20
Connect with Norman Rockwell through this in-depth exhibition featuring original artworks spanning the breadth of his career, and personal mementos and family photographs from the Norman Rockwell archives.

24th Annual Berkshire County High School Art Show
February 6 through March 7
Our annual showcase of artwork from Berkshire County’s talented youth. Enjoy vibrant works from the region’s next generation of artists. Sponsored by Legacy Banks and The Massachusetts Cultural Council.

To Rockwell, With Love: Fan Mail and The Saturday Evening Post
Through May 16, 2010
Step back in time to explore Norman Rockwell’s imagery for The Saturday Evening Post, which prompted an outpouring of reader reaction during the artist’s forty-seven year tenure with the magazine. Shifting American values, reform and the New Deal, World War II and the rise of national identity, the Baby Boom and the growth of the middle class, and the politicization of the American populace are some of the themes that will be brought to life in this engaging and informative installation, which features archival fan correspondence and original Saturday Evening Post tear sheets.

Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera
Through May 31, 2010
Find a fascinating parallel universe to Norman Rockwell’s paintings in the meticulously composed photographs that informed his work. Based on the recently released book Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera and advances in the Museum’s ProjectNORMAN digitization project, the exhibition pairs Rockwell’s photographic references with original artwork to reveal, frame-by-frame, the creation of the artist¹s iconic paintings.

Norman Rockwell’s Stockbridge Models: A Norman Rockwell Museum Historic Preservation Project
Stockbridge Town Hall, Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Ongoing Learn more about the faces behind the pictures in this off-site exhibition of photographs of Rockwell’s models posing for his paintings. Free admission. Open weekdays only.

Programs for Kids and Families

Creativity Center
Wednesdays through Mondays, through March 31
Explore your “inner Rockwell” by creating your own works of art in the Museum’s Creativity Center. Free for children. Adults free with Museum admission.

Kids Create! A Pre-School Art Program
Wednesday, March 31, 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Interactive, hands-on gallery experiences for young art lovers and their caregivers. Kids $2, grownups free.

Programs for Adults and/or All Ages

Meet Rockwell’s Models!
Wednesday, March 3, 2:30 p.m.
Meet the models that inspired Norman Rockwell’s beloved illustrations. Free with Museum admission.

Uncovering the Covers of the Post
Thursday, March 11, 12:30 p.m.
Joyce K. Schiller, Ph.D., Norman Rockwell Museum Curator of the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, will offer a lively look at shifting trends in fashion, haberdashery, and furnishings of the 20th century through Saturday Evening Post imagery. Bring lunch, beverages and dessert are provided. $6, $4 Museum members, or free with Museum admission.

The Artist & The Photograph: Contemporary Perspectives
Saturday, March 27, 5:30 p.m.
Acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson will explore contemporary pathways in the art of photography, from assembled narration to the moving image.
$10, $7 Museum members.

Workshops for Adults and/or All Ages

Picture This: Writing with Photographs
Saturday, March 6, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Join author/educator Vivian Dorsel for a special writing workshop on the use of photographs as inspirational visual memoirs that can spark the creative process. $15, $10 for Museum members.

Painting What Doesn’t Exist: An Afternoon with James Gurney
Saturday, March 13, 1 to 4 p.m.
Award-winning fantasy artist and creator of Dinotopia, James Gurney explores ways to incorporate detail and imagination into realistic fantasy settings. At 1 p.m. the artist will discuss step-by-step techniques used to create his work, followed by hands-on art making and a book signing of Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist. Free with Museum admission, kids and teens free.

Focus Group: Museums, Libraries, and Schools Connect A Workshop for Educators
Saturday, March 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Educators and librarians are invited to join Museum education staff for a presentation of ProjectNORMAN, the upcoming digital database of Norman Rockwell’s work. Refreshments will be served. Free. To register, call 413.298.4100, ext. 260, or e-mail prog@nrm.org.

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Behind the Camera” is provided by the Stockman Family Foundation. 

　 

Related Programs and Events

-Kevin Sprague (February 27) 

-Gregory Crewdson (March 26) 

-Jonathan Doster (April 24) 

Picture This: Writing with Photographs
Saturday, March 6, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

This engaging writing experience with author/educator Vivian Dorsel explores the use of photographs as inspirational visual memoir that can spark the writing process. $15, $10 Museum members. 

A Workshop for Educators
Focus Group: Museums, Libraries, and Schools Connect
Saturday,March 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Educators and librarians are invited to join Museum education staff for a presentation of ProjectNORMAN, the upcoming digital database of Norman Rockwell’s work. Refreshments will be served. Free. To register, call 413.298.4100, ext. 260, or e-mail prog@nrm.org. 

Camera Clinic: Get More Out of Your Digital Camera
Saturday, April 17, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Talented photographer Sabine Vollmer von Falken will help you navigate your digital camera to achieve outstanding results. Fledgling and experienced photographers are welcome. $12, $8 Museum members. 

Uncovering the Covers of the “Post”
Thursday, May 13, 12:30 p.m. 

Norman Rockwell Museum Chief Curator Stephanie Plunkett takes visitors “behind the camera” to explore Norman Rockwell’s extensive use of photography in creating his famous covers for “The Saturday Evening Post.” Beverages and dessert provided. $6, $4 Museum members, or free with Museum admission. 

Norman Rockwell’s American Dream: An Evening with David Kamp
Saturday, May 29, 5:30 p.m. 

Enjoy a discussion with author David Kamp, contributing editor to “Vanity Fair,” whose commentary on “Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera” appeared in the magazine’s November 2009 issue. $10, $7 Museum members, or free with Museum admission. 

 

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As the custodians of the world’s largest collection of original artwork by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), the Museum continues to collect works by the beloved illustrator. Through the generosity of the Rodger P. Nordblom family, the Museum has acquired two 1919 paintings the artist created for “The Country Gentleman”: “Fishing Trip, They’ll Be Coming Back Next Week”

and “The Catch.” The paintings were part of a series of cover illustrations Rockwell created for the magazine between 1917 and 1920, following the antics of four fictional young boys: Master Reginald Claude Fitzhugh, Tubby Doolittle, Rusty Doolittle, and Chuck Peterskin. The illustrations were published consecutively, in order to complete a narrative about the boys’

varying degrees of success during a fishing trip.

Another theme which Rockwell revisited several times during his career, was the story of children disobeying a “No Swimming” sign. For the June 15, 1929 cover of “The Saturday Evening Post,” the artist created an illustration which featured a bashful young girl averting her eyes from the disorderly display, while passing by the familiar hand-painted sign. The striking oil on canvas painting for the cover has been generously donated to the Museum by Jeanie Kull Low and John T.C. Low; the original model for the little girl, Ms. Low had always wished that the painting eventually be donated to Norman Rockwell Museum in her memory.

Representing work created by other artists, two of the Museum’s most recent acquisitions come courtesy of acclaimed portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, who began his career as an illustrator. With artwork featured in the Museum’s permanent collection, Mr. Kinstler is perhaps best-known for his singular portrayals of such celebrated figures as John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, and President Ronald Reagan; his most recent donations to Norman Rockwell Museum are important works by two significant Golden Age

Illustrators: Charles Dana Gibson and James Montgomery Flagg. Gibson

(1867-1944) created indelible images from the 1890s through 1910, which defined the age; remembered for his creation of the iconic Gibson Girl, the artist also produced illustrations for many popular books and magazines of the day. The Museum’s latest acquisition of original Gibson art, is one of

56 illustrations the artist created for author Robert W. Chambers’ 1911 novel “The Common Law;” the finished work was originally a gift from Gibson to fellow illustrator James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960).

Flagg enjoyed his own considerable success and fame as an artist; at his peak, he was reported to have been the highest paid magazine illustrator, and is perhaps best-known for creating the 1917 World War I recruitment poster featuring Uncle Sam alongside the caption “I Want YOU for U.S. Army.”

As an aspiring illustrator, Everett Raymond Kinstler contacted Flagg during his youth, hoping to learn all that he could from a true master. A masterful artist himself today, he has generously donated to the Museum two rare oil paintings created by Flagg, ensuring the preservation and ongoing access to the accomplishments of his artistic mentor.

Other recent illustration art acquisitions include “Nurse with a Wounded Soldier,” a poignant 1943 study by Fletcher Martin (1904-1979), an artist war correspondent for “Life,” which published the final illustration on the magazine’s cover; this important donation is one of a series from Norman Rockwell Museum Trustee Steven Hirsch, which will enhance the Museum’s holdings from the World War II period. Recalling a different era, the Museum has also received a late 1890s frontier-themed painting by Winfield Scott Lukens (active 1896-1905), donated by contemporary illustrator and Norman Rockwell Museum Trustee Wendell Minor; and “The Man Without a God,” an early 1920s illustration by Victor C. Anderson (1882-1937). The Anderson work, whose theme recalls Norman Rockwell’s iconic 1942 painting “Freedom of Speech,” was donated by Norman Rockwell Museum National Council Member Robert T. Horvath, an accomplished artist and library director from Saint Michaels, Maryland. Inspired by his early interest in comics, Mr. Horvath has had a passion for illustration throughout his life, and over the years has donated many significant artworks to the Museum’s collection, including a fine pen and ink drawing by Norman Rockwell’s teacher Thomas Fogarty, and oil paintings by Rockwell’s studio mate, illustrator Edmund Ward. Collected through the years, Mr. Horvath’s outstanding collection of illustration art is generously intended for Norman Rockwell Museum.

Through the decades, the art of illustration has looked deeply into society, reflecting and shaping a rapidly changing world. Gifts of art to Norman Rockwell Museum makes continued scholarship possible for researchers today and into the future. To learn more, or to make your own tax-deductible donation of original Norman Rockwell or illustration art, please contact Norman Rockwell Museum’s Curatorial Department at 413.298.4100, ext. 208

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Saturday, February 20, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Gifted educator/graphic novelist Tim Callahan will guide young cartoonists through the process of moving an idea from first frame to finished comic. Ages 13 and up.  Bring your lunch. $8, $6 members.

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February 6 through March 7, 2010

Celebrate the 24th annual showcase of artwork from Berkshire County’s talented youth. This year’s exhibition showcases 118 works created in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, and sculpture. The young artists learn how to prepare their work for a gallery show, acquire a personal understanding of the exhibition process, and have the opportunity to exhibit their work in a professional museum setting.

Participating schools include: BArT Charter School, Berkshire School, Drury High School, Lee Middle and High School, Lenox Memorial High School, Miss Hall’s School, Monument Mountain Regional High School, Mount Everett Regional High School, Mount Greylock Regional High School, Pittsfield High School, St. Joseph Central High School, Taconic High School, and Wahconah Regional High School.

The 24th Annual Berkshire County High School Art Show is sponsored by Legacy Banks and The Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Special Opening
Saturday, February 6, 1 to 5 p.m.

Enjoy an afternoon in celebration of the talented young artists from
Berkshire County high schools. The opening event will include refreshments, the chance to meet the artists behind the works on view, as well as a special 2 p.m. lecture for budding artists and their families, provided by Massachusetts illustrator/cartoonist John Roman.

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