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Ye Glutton, 1923
Norman Rockwell
So sorry I've been MIA, I hope to be back in full swing after the holiday. Norman Rockwell continues to fall into debate about whether his illustration is fine art. Despite this, he is one of America's most recognized artists, and this is due to his illustrations and the Saturday Evening Post! Either way, enjoy more at the Life Magazine Thanksgiving Gallery
Happy Thanksgiving!
1 comment:
I actually attended a lecture and exhibit on Rockwell a while back, and while the harried art-history professor didn't seem to have much to say about him, I gained more respect for Rockwell than I thought I would. He might not have been the most inspired genius, but he was an excellent commercial artist who had more of a grasp of history than you would think. His famous self-portrait has a lot more going on than one might assume at first glance -- it has, after all, several different versions of self-portrait, along with references, discreetly clipped alongside, of some more celebrated artists...It's pretty clear he at least knew what was going on in the more rarefied realm of fine art...and when I looked at some of his commercial non-representational illustrations, I was struck by more use of hierarchical perspective than I was used to.
Brilliant artist? Maybe not, and he churned out a lot of magazine covers to pay the bills, but when you start looking around, there's more technique and less sentiment than one would imagine.
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