
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (see Artscope Magazine’s May/June 2019 issue for feature on this season’s exhibition highlights), the National Museum of American Illustrators in Newport, Rhode Island will debut its newest exhibition on May 23, culminating with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing that occurred on July 20, 1969.
“Norman Rockwell & His Contemporaries: Fabulous Forties to Sensational Sixties” focuses on the 1940s through the 1960s, a time in American history when significant political and social changes were defining daily life for post-WWII Americans, and those who lived through the Cold War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Works include “Another Way to Go” by Stevan Dohanos, John Falter’s “Family Picnic” and Richard Stone’s 1956 advertisement for American Airlines, “Welcome Home!” Norman Rockwell’s studies depicting Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for Look Magazine, “The Final Impossibility: Man’s Tracks on the Moon,” are also included.
Featuring original paintings, works on paper, vintage posters and accompanying artifacts, the exhibition highlights changing life in America during three different decades. Through illustrations created for advertisements, magazines, newspapers and more, artists showed how American culture and values changed in the face of political unrest. The exhibition has three main focuses: war & politics in the 1940s; leisure, the nuclear family and the economy of the 1950s; and civil rights, women’s rights, travel and expansion in the 1960s.
“The exhibition is an opportunity to see instantly a concentrated visual representation of three historic decades in which Americans, while attempting to return to normal, achieved amazing accomplishments,” said museum co-founder Judy Cutler. “Norman Rockwell’s paintings were vital to understanding those times.”
The National Museum of American Illustration is an independent, educational and aesthetic organization with the goal of presenting a venue for the public to appreciate its outstanding collection of illustration art.
(“Norman Rockwell & His Contemporaries: From Fabulous Forties to Sensational Sixties” runs from May 23 through December 27 at The National Museum of American Illustration, Vernon Court, 492 Bellevue Ave., Newport, Rhode Island. For more information, call (401) 851-8949 or visit americanillustration.org.)
A MUSEUM AND A BREWING COMPANY COLLABORATE FOR ART
In February 2019, the Norman Rockwell Museum and Collective Arts Brewing announced a partnership designed to promote illustration programs around the country and to highlight career paths available to emerging artists. Teaming up, the museum and the craft beer company held their first annual Art of Brewing contest, participation in which was open to art students throughout the United States. Eight winning entries, selected by a jury of representatives from the museum, the brewing company, and contemporary illustrators, will be displayed on a Collective Arts Brewing can series distributed across North America. Winners will be announced on August 10 at the Art of Brewing Festival to be held at the museum.
“Both Norman Rockwell Museum and Collective Arts Brewing are dedicated to creating opportunities for contemporary illustrators,” said Mary Berle, chief educator for the museum. “For many student artists, this will be their first opportunity for national recognition.” Bob Russell, co-founder and chief creative officer at the brewery concurs: “Illustration students represent the next wave of creativity, with fresh visions and unbridled talents, and we are looking forward to seeing these students’ work.”
(The Art of Brewing Festival takes place on Saturday, August 10 from 4–7 p.m. at Norman Rockwell Museum, 9 Glendale Rd., Stockbridge, Massachusetts. To pre-register for this 21+ event, visit nrm.org/events.)