The Final Impossibility: Man’s Tracks on the Moon (Two Men on the Moon) Norman Rockwell. 1969. Story illustration for Look, December 30, 1969. Collection of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. © Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved.

About the Exhibition

In 1963, after ending his forty-seven year association with The Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell began work for the reportorial magazine Look with a true sense of purpose. He invited consideration of important social issues and the space race, depicting the moon landing before and after it actually happened. The artist’s 1964 painting, The Problem We All Live With, gently presents an assertion on moral decency. This first assignment for Look magazine was an illustration of a six-year-old African-American schoolgirl being escorted by four U.S. marshals to her first day at an all-white school in New Orleans. In 1965, Rockwell illustrated the murder of civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and in 1967, he chose children, once again, to illustrate desegregation, this time in our suburbs.

Norman Rockwell in the 1960s traces Rockwell’s artistic transformation from a painter of people and life’s small but extraordinary moments, to a powerful visual commentator who united America around such core national values as democracy, freedom, and justice.

Image Left: The Final Impossibility, 1969 “detail”. Tearsheet, story illustration for LOOK, December 30, 1969. Norman Rockwell Museum Collections @Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved.

New Kids in the Neighborhood, Norman Rockwell. 1967. Story illustration for Look, May 16, 1967 From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum. © Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved.

About Norman Rockwell

Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.
—Norman Rockwell

Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his long career.

Rockwell found success early. He painted his first commission of four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. While still in his teens, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and began a successful freelance career illustrating a variety of young people’s publications.

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Host this Exhibition

Contact Information:

General Inquiries
413-931-2245
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett
Deputy Director/Chief Curator
Complete Facts
Contents: approx. 20 original tear sheets and or prints plus introductory and biographical panels and three photograph panels
Security: Moderate, security hardware required
Environment: Light level—10-foot candles, humidity—50% plus or minus 5%, no direct sunlight
Shipping & Insurance: Borrowers will be responsible for shipping costs and insuring the exhibition while it is in their care both during transportation and while on display.
Speaker: Upon request

Photos of the installed galleries for Norman Rockwell in the 1960s

Norman Rockwell in the 1960s Install photo
Norman Rockwell in the 1960s Install photo
Norman Rockwell in the 1960s Install photo
Norman Rockwell in the 1960s Install photo

Venues Hosting This Exhibition

This exhibition is available for hosting