ROCKWELL

The simple charm of everyday life, once upon a time

Since his work is categorized as illustration and was most famously featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, fine art critics were slow to acknowledge the importance of Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) as true artist, though his work was enormously popular during his lifetime and has endured as a crucial element in America's perception of itself in the 20th century. Through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1950s and 60s, Rockwell illustrations were a part of daily life in the US, showing, as he once said, "the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed."

The author:
Karal Ann Marling is professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of numerous books on topics including American mural painting of the Depression era, illustration of the 1940s, the architecture of theme parks, and the influence of television on visual culture in the 1950

Footnote:
I bought this book because as a child I was fascinated by the stunning Rockwell covers on the Saturday Evening Post and then last year while visiting family in upstate New York we visited the Rockwell Museum and I was transfixed!
I wrote about this on the blog at the time.

Rockwell
Karal Ann Marling
Taschen - NZ $39.99
A beautiful hardback book full of full colour illustrations of Norman Rockwell's most famous illustrations. And a brief biography of the great man as well. I love it.