A Day in the life of a Little Girl!

Rockwell used 172 known photos for that August 30, 1952 Saturday Evening Post cover alone!
It would seem that painting thirty-two heads is far more work than one or two, but to Rockwell, whose forte was portraiture, telling a complete story using this method was far less work than a cover with a detailed background. The events of the girl’s day were so typical to the American child that this cover could be appreciated by large numbers of viewers.

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Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge, LA
October 14, 2012 – January 6, 2013

Girl Reading The Post ©1941 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN

For nearly fifty years, millions of Americans brought Norman Rockwell’s art into their homes, enjoying the artist’s Saturday Evening Post covers while seated in their favorite chairs, surrounded by their belongings in the company of their families. This intimate connection with Rockwell’s art made his images a part of the fabric of American lives. This comprehensive exhibition of original Saturday Evening Post cover tear sheets features each of Norman Rockwell’s illustrations for the publication, created between 1916 and 1963.

The Sandman by Marc Hempel ©1992 Marc Hempel

Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia
February 20, 2010 – May 23, 2010

James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA.
October 16, 2010 – January 30, 2011

Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY
March 3, 2012 through April 29, 2012

A burgeoning art form with roots planted firmly in history, graphic novels, or long-form comic books, have inspired the interest of the literary establishment and a growing number of readers. For today’s aficionados, graphic novels, with their antiheroes and visual appeal, are positioned to usurp the role that the novel once played. Focused on subjects as diverse as the nature of relationships, the perils of war, and the meaning of life, graphic novels now comprise the fastest-growing sections of many bookstores‹an accessible, vernacular art form with mass appeal.

This comprehensive exhibition explores the history and diverse artistry of the graphic novel, featuring personal commentary and artworks by celebrated historic and contemporary practitioners. Original book pages and studies, sketchbooks, and video interviews provide insights into an evolving and exciting art form. Artworks by Jessica Abel, Sue Coe, R. Crumb, Howard Cruse, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Brian Fies, Gerhard, Milt Gross, Marc Hempel, Niko Henrichon, Mark Kalesniko, Peter Kuper, Harvey Kurtzman, Matt Madden, Frans Masereel, Frank Miller, Terry Moore, Dave Sim, Art Spiegelman, Lynd Ward, Lauren Weinstein, Mark Wheatley, Barron Storey and others will be on view.

Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum Cooperstown, NY
October 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012

Tasha Tudor: Around the Year illuminates the changing seasons and special celebrations with outstanding, rarely seen examples of this beloved author and illustrator’s original art for children’s books and greeting cards highlighting holidays beginning with New Year’s………Christmas, her favorite.

Original portraits of Tasha Tudor by her mother, Rosamond Tudor, evocative watercolors, delicate childhood drawings, original handwritten manuscripts, miniature doll cards, hand-decorated boxes and Easter eggs, personal photographs, and one hundred first-issue holiday cards dating from the early 1940s onward are among the heartwarming treasures to be enjoyed.

Spanning seven decades, Tasha Tudor’s heartwarming images remind us of the simple pleasures that can be had by savoring each passing season and cherishing the special moments which weave into the fabric of our lives.

Freedom of Speech ©1943 SEPS: Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, IN

Many of Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post covers during the 1940s were inspired by life on the American homefront during World War II. Rockwell’s powerful Four Freedoms, unforgettable Rosie the Riveter, exuberant Homecoming Soldier, and hapless but lovable infantryman, Willie Gillis are among the many memorable images contained within this exhibition of original tearsheets featuring 44 Rockwell illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post.

Reference photo for Norman Rockwell's "Day in the Life of a Little Girl," 1952. Photo montage created by Ron Schick. Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL. From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum.

Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
November 7, 2009 through May 31, 2010

Photography has been a benevolent tool for artists from Thomas Eakins and Edgar Degas to David Hockney. And to illustrators, always on the lookout for better ways to meet deadlines, the camera has long been a natural ally. But the thousands of photographs Norman Rockwell created as studies for his iconic images are a case apart. A natural storyteller, Rockwell envisioned his narrative scenarios down to the smallest detail. Yet at the easel he was an absolute literalist who rarely painted directly from his imagination.

Instead, he first brought his ideas to life in studio sessions, staging photographs that are fully realized works of art in their own right. Selecting props and locations, choosing and directing his models, he carefully orchestrated each element of his design for the camera before beginning to paint. Meticulously composed and richly detailed, Norman Rockwell’s study photographs mirror his masterworks in a tangible parallel universe. Photography opened a door to the keenly observed authenticity that defines Norman Rockwell’s art. And for us today it is a revelation to discover that so many of his most memorable characters were, in fact, real people.

Curator and author Ron Schick is the first to undertake a frame-by-frame study of the Norman Rockwell Museum’s newly digitized photography archive, the product of a just-completed two-year “Save America’s Treasures” project that has preserved the artist’s archive of almost 20,000 negatives and made accessible the full range of the artist’s photography. His forthcoming book, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, will be published by Little, Brown and Company in 2009.