Norman Rockwell at the WAG, Opening Night, March 1 2012

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell

 March 2, 2012 to May 20, 2012

For the first time ever an exhibition of the work of Norman Rockwell is coming to Canada—and it’s coming to the WAG! One of the most popular North American artists of the past century, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a keen observer of human nature and a gifted storyteller. For nearly seven decades, Rockwell chronicled our changing society in the small details and nuanced scenes of ordinary people in everyday life, providing a personalized interpretation—often an idealized one—of North American identity. His depictions offered a reassuring visual haven during a time of momentous transformation as North America evolved into a complex, modern society. In addition to 42 major paintings by the artist depicting good times and bad, quaint pastimes and charged current events, the exhibition includes archival material, photographs, and complete set of 323 tear sheets from The Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell’s contributions to our visual legacy, many of them now icons of North American culture, have found a permanent place in our psyche. Representing the exhibition’s only Canadian venue, the Winnipeg Art Gallery is partnering with the Norman Rockwell Museum, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to bring a major exhibition of this defining artist to Canada for the first time.

Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell found success early, being commissioned to design four Christmas cards before his sixteenth birthday. In 1916 the 22-year-old painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, the magazine he considered to be “the greatest show window in America.” Over the next 47 years, Rockwell’s art appeared on the cover of The Post 323 times. Although often seen as a painter of idealized North American family life, Rockwell also chronicled the darker side. His Four Freedoms paintings, inspired by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s address to Congress in 1943, toured the United States in an exhibition sponsored by The Saturday Evening Post and the U.S. Treasury Department and, through the sale of war bonds, raised more than $130 million for the war effort. Murder in Mississippi is a haunting depiction of the murder of civil rights workers in 1965. The Problem We All Live With dealt with the issue of school racial integration, depicting a young African American girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell is organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Masterpieces Program.

Click here for a video Leif Norman shot and edited for The WAG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af0-lPyIrsE&context=C3f8fba6ADOEgsToPDskJ1Es9XdvpYbxaJ2AnXpC6f

 

The Winnipeg Art Gallery

 

 

 

 

Volunteers at the WAG, sponsored by Manitoba Lotteries

 

They have Norman Rockwell Mugs for sale in the Gift shop!

 

Ben Wasylyshen, designer, and his wife Evelyn Mitchell, and Josié Koes

 

Ron Bell, retired Chancellor of Brandon University, Paul Borys of Border Glass

 

Timothy Ciipullo, US Counsel, Crystal Merriwether, US Cultural Affairs Councillor, talks to Rockwell curator Andrew Kear

 

Connie Borys, Don Borys, George Cibenel, and Warren Carther

 

Her Honour Anita Lee, Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Philip Lee, Aide Claude Michon, talks with WAG Executive Director Stephen Borys

 

Roman Borys (left) and friends

 

Guest, WAG Executive Director Stephen Borys, and Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Philip Lee

 

WAG Foundation Member Gus Leach, John Bulman former WAG Chair, Mary Lynn Duckworth, Communications Manager Catharine Maksymiuk and Gail Leach

 

Free Press guests Alison Mayes and colleague

 

WAG Executive Director Stephen Borys

 

 

Manitoba Choir, Antiphony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her Honour Anita Lee, Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Philip Lee admiring Saturday Evening Post cover sheets

 

 

Saturday Evening Post photo opportunity in the children's activity area

 

 

 

Robert Enright, Winnipeg's revered Art Critic, ponders Norman Rockwell's painting; "The Art Critic"

 

Dwight MacAulay, Chief Protocol Officer for the province of Manitoba

 

Stuart Murray CEO of the Canadian Human Rights Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winnipeg photographer Alan McTavish

 

Board Member Scott McCulloch and Al Babiuk, Centennial Executive Committee Member

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antiphone with Lieutenant Governor and Anita Lee

 

 

WAG ED Stephen Borys, MB Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Flor Marcellino, WAG Board Member Deborah Thorlakson, Laurie Norton-Moffat ED of the Norman Rockwell Museum, Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Philip Lee, Her Honour Anita Lee, CEO Border Glass Paul Borys (presenting sponsor) US Councellor Crystal Meriwether

 

 

US Counsel Tim Cipullo, ED Norman Rockwell Museum Laurie Norton-Moffat, US Councillor Crystal Meriwether, WAG ED Stephen Borys

 

WAG Volunteer Associate Pat McCullough

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman Rockwell paints a photographer

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman Rockwell Museum ED Laurie Norton-Moffat, and WAG ED Stephen Borys