Sunday, July 04, 2010

Hey, whaddya know ...

... a Norman Rockwell painting that is not excessively icky.


Norman Rockwell: Proud Possessor (1940)Norman Rockwell: Proud Possessor (1940)



From the NYT's slide show here. Article here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should go to the Rockwell Museum and see lots of non-icky

Terri said...

Most of Rockwell's narratives are clear. What's the story here? Do these kids know one another? Is the black kid asking for something? What's your take on the image?

bjkeefe said...

@Anon:

I'm sure you're right. I actually have seen some other stuff of his that doesn't make me reach for the insulin. Here, I was being a bit hyperbolic for effect in my post title -- in part because I didn't want people who have the same general impression of NR to click away as soon as they recognized the artist's style, without taking a closer look at this particular picture.

@Terri:

Agreed -- this picture is harder to be sure about, isn't it?

My impression, purely from looking at the image without knowing anything about it, is that NR was making a comment about haves and have-nots in America, the unwillingness of the former to act to alleviate that problem, and probably also illustrating a larger point about race-based inequities of his day.

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