I grew up with a massive Norman Rockwell coffee table book kicking around the house. By the time I was a teenager, this book was dog eared from me flipping through the illustrations. This image above still brings me back to when I was little, even then I was amazed at the brilliant artist/illustrator. I love the level of clarity and the use of a solid figurative silhouette in this piece. It's something every animator should keep in mind.. clarity above all. Clarity, proportion, weight, character... Norman would have been an epic animator. Every time I hang out at the society of illustrators here in New York, I think about Norman Rockwell and JC Leyendecker hanging out at the bar having a drink. 
Norman probably annoying JC with his fan boy questions. Rad. Enjoy the Leyendecker above, another one of my holiday favorites! I mean.. wha? that composition is just incredible... everything in a perfect place, working in complete harmony with the space. Wish I could have been there hanging out with those guys. Here's a great page of Santas, mostly by Rockwell and Leyendecker. Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!! I'm off to Wyoming to shoot more guns, see y'all in 2009!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Christmas Inspiration: Norman Rockwell and JC Leyendecker...
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34 comments:
You know Rockwell traced everything, right?
He even had a studio set up for him to stage shots.
That makes him even cooler to me.
of course he had a studio to set up shots.. it's called working from life.
i don't understand the desire to knock down the masters with trite bs.
you can't trace texture and color. rockwell was a genius.
There are plenty of reasons to knock Rockwell -smaltzy sentimentality, and vapid content come to mind.
He's far from a "master" artist though.
He's a great illustrator. One of the top of the 20th Century.
I know you're big on draughtsmanship, that's why I brought it up.
Rockwell didn't work from life -he traced. In fact, he often claimed that he couldn't draw at all because. People took it as a joke.
His work reproduces well (like say, Dali) because he knew how to illustrate. He knew what colors reproduced, he knew that working three to four times scale would make his the blotchiness of his original painting look elegant, he knew that the details he omitted would go unmissed.
All that is to say Rockwell was a great illustrator. He's no where on the level of artistry of Leyendecker.
I don't understand the need to lionize beyond the scale that their work demands.
Hear hear. All Rockwell's technical brilliance doesn't make up for the fact that it's squandered on patriotic sentimentality.
If he would've grown into an animator his films would be executed marvelously- but with nothing worthwhile to say. So yeah, he would've fit in pretty well with modern animators. Ba-ZING!
"smaltzy sentimentality, and vapid content"
no. no content at all: http://64.225.237.27/Blog/ROCKWELL_Norman_The_Problem_We_All_live_with_1964.jpg
I think your description of Rockwell is marching lockstep with the brainwashed cynical art mob. A process that begins in art school and continues through professional life.
there's another way to look at Rockwells paintings, after you step down from your elitist perch: he captured an era in american history, he commented on social issues of the time, of war, of family, race and class, and core beliefs in something larger and better than the individual, the individual that our contemporary world seems overly obsessed with.
Rockwell had a way of leveling the classes and sexes, he was an idealist, commenting on equality and division in a very patriotic optimistic, everyday sort of way.
the link i posted above is for the painting "the problem we all live with", which i'm sure we all know. here's another link if that one didn't work:
http://tiny.cc/3NR40
I didn't go to art school, but from looking at my colleagues in the Ivory Tower, I see most of them praising Rockwell in the same breath as Warhol. In illustration which is his field, tastemakers like Steve Heller give him nothing but praise.
Still, it's cute that you cling to the good old fashioned fear of smart people.
The illustration you linked served to prove my point. It's completely vapid. A painting of a black girl escorted by National Guard with nasty graffiti in the background -yet somehow completely devoid of any pathos.
In fact, it goes to show how mid-century illustration had become completely emasculated by the ascendency of photography.
Rockwell's eye was sadly unfit to offer any insight into the civil rights struggle. In part, because it was real.
His success as an illustrator came from playing on nostalgia. On presenting a fabricated worldview of small town America that never existed.
There is marked validity in this. But he's not a social commentator (why should he be?), he created images people wanted (and still want) to see. This is a great skill, but it doesn't make him a great Artist.
"captured an era in American History"
Which era? The one where industry took over a nation and patriotism was tossed about blindly? When America took the vague threat of the cold war and covered the land in needless fear? The McCarthy era? Segregation? Oh, That America. Awesome. Lemme get out my little flag here and wave it.
It's propaganda. The heartiest form of schlock. I think North Vietnamese propaganda, which arguably revolutionized graphic design, has more to say about society than good ole Norm. Of course, they were pasting it to walls during a war instead of running it in the Saturday Evening Post.
I didn't go to art school. I'm talking about history. Did you study history? You're welcome to think of Norman as a master. I call him limp. Flaccid. One step up from a Kinkade.
It seems your love of Norman comes from this book you had around the house. Perhaps waxing nostalgic has more to do with your admiration than your passion for the grand ole flag and technical expertise?
The cynicism of AA and JhaP is astounding. You guys must understand nothing of beauty or joy. You're too intelligent and you know everything sucks. You're the reason why every movie about a time in society in the future is dystopian because you only esteem iconoclasts. Sometimes great art doesn't have to be revolutionary or unpopular to be good.
There is a reason why every artist goes through a "Mucha" phase. His style is gorgeous and easily learned (like golf, it is also hard to master). Where is the pathos in a Mucha illustration?
The real problem I see is that Rockwell's work was published and he worked for publishers. That's the ultimate sin to the Fine Artist content to be poor so long as that validates his self-righteousness.
So sniffle and mope about how Rockwell painted accessible illustrations for a population that may not have lived that way but at least still appreciated hoping for something better. At least you know better. I hope that keeps you warm this winter.
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