"The long-awaited biography of the defining illustrator of the twentieth century by a celebrated art critic"--

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Twentieth-century American society wittily and ironically portrayed by a great artist. Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), one of the most popular American artists of the past century, has often been regarded as a simple illustrator and had his work identified with the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. He is, instead, a total artist. An acute observer of human nature and talented storyteller, Rockwell captured America's evolving society in small details and nuances, portraying scenes of the everyday life of ordinary people and presenting a personal and often idealized interpretation of the American identity. His images offered a reassuring visual haven in a period of epoch-making transformation that led to the birth of the modern American society. The art of Norman Rockwell entered the homes of millions of Americans for over fifty years, illustrating the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, World War II, and the 1950s and 1960s. His works mirror aspects of the life of average Americans with precise realism and often in a humorous light. The exhibition catalog organized in collaboration with the Norman Rockwell Museum of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, presents well-known and beloved masterpieces like the Triple Self-Portrait (1960), Girl at the Mirror (1954), and The Art Critic (1955) alongside carefully observed images of youthful innocence (No Swimming, 1921) and paintings with a powerful social message like The Problem We All Live With (1964).

Reprint. Originally published: New York: H.N. Abrams 1975. Text and captioned illustrations present selections of the artist's work and a brief biographical sketch.

An unprecedented study of Norman Rockwell's creative process, pairing masterworks of American illustration with the photographs that inspired their execution

'Norman Rockwell's America... in England' exhibits a remarkable collection of select original works spanning six decades, providing a comprehensive look at Norman Rockwell's career, including all of his vintage 'Saturday Evening Post' covers. Rockwell's heart-warming depictions of everyday life made him the best-known and most beloved American artist of the 20th century. He lived and worked through some of the most eventful periods in the nation's history, and his paintings vividly chronicled those times. They serve as a mirror of American life, reflecting not only who Americans were but also what they thought - and what some may have subconsciously endeavored to become.

Based on the Rockwell collections owned by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, "Telling Stories" is the first book to chart the connections between Rockwell's iconic images of American life and the movies.

On the life and paintings of Norman Rockwell

Deborah Solomon’s definitive biography of Joseph Cornell, one of America’s most moving and unusual twentieth-century artists, now reissued twenty years later with updated and extensively revised text Few artists ever led a stranger life than Joseph Cornell, the self-taught American genius prized for his enigmatic shadow boxes, who stands at the intersection of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art. Legends about Cornell abound—the shy hermit, the devoted family caretaker, the artistic innocent—but never before has he been presented for what he was: a brilliant, relentlessly serious artist whose stature has now reached monumental proportions.

Norman Rockwell’s tremendously successful, prolific career as a painter and illustrator has rendered him a twentieth-century American icon. However, the very popularity and accessibility of his idealized, nostalgic depictions of middleclass life have caused him to be considered not a serious artist but a “mere illustrator”–a disparagement only reinforced by the hundreds of memorable covers he drew for The Sunday Evening Post. Symptomatic of critics’ neglect is the fact that Rockwell has never before been the subject of a serious critical biography. Based on private family archives and interviews and publishes to coincide with a major two-year travelling retrospective of his work, this book reveals for the first time the driven workaholic who had three complicated marriages and was a distant father —so different from the loving, all-American-dad image widely held to this day. Critically acclaimed author Laura Claridge also breaks new ground with her reappraisal of Rockwell’s art, arguing that despite his popular sentimental style, his artistry was masterful, complex, and far more manipulative than people realize.