The life of America’s most beloved artist, in his own words — back in print with restored text and drawings, new illustrations, and more.

The wit, humanity, and many-sided talent of Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) are on full display in his classic autobiography. Rockwell’s New York City boyhood, his apprentice days at the Art Students League, his first fateful visit to the Saturday Evening Post, his adventures abroad, his move to rural Vermont – all are recounted with a mix of sharp observation and self-deprecating humor. Throughout Rockwell invites the reader into his artistic process: he introduces his favourite models, candidly reveals his biggest flops, and documents the creation of a Post cover step by step.

This Definitive Edition restores the original 1960 text of My Adventures as an Illustrator, as well as the playful vignettes that Rockwell drew to head each chapter. Thanks to a massive image digitisation effort undertaken by the Norman Rockwell Museum, it is also illustrated with more than 150 of Rockwell’s paintings and drawings, many of which highlight lesser-known aspects of his work. A new introduction by the artist’s granddaughter Abigail Rockwell adds reference value, as do an illustrated chronology and an annotated bibliography prepared by the staff of the Norman Rockwell Museum.

This attractive volume will be the essential source on the life of Norman Rockwell, and delightful reading for anyone who enjoys his art. Plus, its publication coincided with a major exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum in 2019 concerning the autobiographical elements in the artist’s work (Norman Rockwell: Private Moments for the Masses).

About the Author:

Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) is one of America’s most celebrated artists.

The first book on the brilliant yet little-seen drawings of Norman Rockwell — including side-by-side comparisons of his drawings and his finished paintings.

Before Norman Rockwell put paintbrush to canvas, he had a precise idea of what he wanted to create. A perfectionist and analytical thinker, Rockwell completed numerous preparatory drawings in the process of developing his paintings, much like the Old Masters before him. He worked in several stages, including thumbnail sketches and studies of particular details – culminating in a meticulous tonal drawing that served as a basis for the final painting. But Rockwell’s drawing was not only in the service of his painting: he also executed finished illustrations in pencil and charcoal; kept travel sketchbooks; and shared illustrated letters, caricatures, and comics with his family and friends.

This abundantly illustrated book reveals the entire scope of Rockwell’s work as a draftsman. It reproduces the full sequence of preliminary drawings (and reference photographs) that led up to some of his most famous Saturday Evening Post covers – and it also presents a generous sampling of his standalone drawings, many of them rarely published. The text, by curators at the Norman Rockwell Museum, illuminates and contextualises the different aspects of Rockwell’s drawing practice.

Norman Rockwell: Drawings, which accompanies an exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum, will be a must-have reference for artists and illustrators, and a delight for art lovers.

About the Authors:

Stephanie Haboush Plunkett is Deputy Director/Chief Curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum. She currently leads the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies and has organized many illustration-based exhibitions, including Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol; Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World; The Unknown Hopper: Edward Hopper as Illustrator; William Steig: Love & Laughter; and Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women’s Magazine, 1940–1960; as well as the international traveling exhibition Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms. Her most recent publication is Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School: Classic Techniques and Expert Tips from the Golden Age of Illustration.

Jesse M. Kowalski, Curator of Exhibitions, joined Norman Rockwell Museum in 2015. Since coming on board, he has curated Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration; Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning; Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol; The Art & Wit of Rube Goldberg; Superheroes and Superstars: The Art of Alex Ross; and Never Abandon Imagination: The Fantastical Art of Tony DiTerlizzi, and is currently preparing additional exhibitions. Prior to joining Norman Rockwell Museum, Kowalski served as Director of Exhibitions at The Andy Warhol Museum, where he was employed for eighteen of the Museum’s 20 years, curating many of the Warhol Museum’s popular traveling and in-house exhibitions.

Louis Henry Mitchell is the Creative Director of Character Design for Sesame Workshop, where he directs and oversees all aspects of character art. Most recently, he designed Julia, the first Sesame Street character on the autism spectrum, from initial character illustration to final sculpted Muppet. Mitchell studied at the School of Visual and The Art Students League, and credits Norman Rockwell as a major inspiration in his desire to become an artist.

This full-sized album of Saturday Evening Post covers captures everyday events and historic moments in American history.

Although technically Norman Rockwell was an academic painter, he had the eye of a photographer and, as he became a mature artist, he used this eye to give us a picture of America that was familiar — astonishingly so — and at the same time unique. Rockwell best expressed this vision of America in his justly famous cover illustrations for magazines like The Saturday Evening Post. 332 of these cover paintings, from beloved classics like “Marbles Champion” to lesser-known gems like “Feeding Time,” are reproduced in stunning full-colour in this large-format volume, which is sure to be treasured by art lovers everywhere.

Christopher Finch’s books include the bestsellers Norman Rockwell’s America, The Art of Walt Disney, and Rainbow, a biography of Judy Garland, which was turned into a motion picture for NBC television. His other books have dealt with various aspects of contemporary painting and popular culture.

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Norman Rockwell's best-loved works, collected in a handsome clothbound volume

Norman Rockwell gave us a picture of America that was familiar – astonishingly so – and at the same time unique, because only he could bring it to life with such authority.

Rockwell best expressed this vision of America in his justly famous cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post, painted between 1916 and 1963. All of his Post covers are reproduced in splendid full colour in this oversized volume, with commentaries by Christopher Finch, the noted writer on art and popular culture.

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Пролистать книгу Norman Rockwell 332 Magazine Covers на Google Books

It seems familiar because it was everyone's dream of America; and it was unique because only Rockwell managed to bring it to life with such authority. This was, perhaps, an America that never existed, but it was an America the public wanted to exist. And Rockwell put it together from elements that were there for everyone to see.

Norman Rockwell helped preserve American myths, but, more than that, he recreated them and made them palatable for new generations. His function was to reassure people, to remind them of old values in times of rapid change.

About the Author:

Christopher Finch was born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, in 1939 and came to the United States in 1968 to join the curatorial staff of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His books include the best sellers Norman Rockwell’s America, The Art of Walt Disney, and Rainbow, a biography of Judy Garland, which was turned into a motion picture for NBC television.

For the majority of his decades-long career, Norman Rockwell relied on a camera to help him render the iconic scenarios born in his imagination. Photograph by photograph, he painstakingly assembled the specific features he sought for his envisioned illustration, projecting whole or partial pictures of amateur models, objects and settings onto drafting paper, and from there, onto canvas.

Many of Rockwell's most famous works - including those reproduced for LIFE and the Saturday Evening Post - began behind the lens. Uncanny in their approximation to his final paintings and unknown outside a small circle of Rockwell specialists, his study photographs are among the most evocative ever taken by a painter and undoubtedly cast his brushwork in a new light.

This heartfelt tribute to Americas best-known, best-loved illustrator, first published shortly after his death in 1978 is an inspiring examination of Norman Rockwell's vision of America, one that is especially appreciated today.

Rockwell's famous Saturday Evening Post covers, the four Freedoms he painted during the years of World War II, his depictions of American towns, families, and traditions are all represented in this enchanting volume. They offer a picture of America that we hold dear, representing a world of hope and humanity.

Fred Bauer writes about Rockwell's message of optimism and the artist's faith in America and its people in a forthright and sympathetic text complemented by numerous Rockwell favourites in all their warmth and colour. Bauer visits Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Arlington, Vermont, talking to the people who lived with Rockwell and posed for his anecdotal pictures, the people about whom the artist said, "If you are interested in the characters you draw and understand them and love them, why, the people who see your pictures are bound to feel the same way." This lovely book enables us to partake once again of that unique love and understanding that Norman Rockwell still communicates to America.

American beauty. Painting life as it would like to be

An extraordinarily prolific artist, Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) produced some 4,000 paintings in his lifetime, not including a prodigious quantity of commissioned editorial, commercial, and advertising work. His death in 1978 was regarded the loss of a national icon, an artist who, like no other, celebrated the American Dream.

Shunning experimentation and avant-garde techniques in favour of effective composition and relatable subject matter, Rockwell created wholesome, homely paintings with accessible and aspirational appeal. Neat, quaint, and typically jovial, his subjects included classrooms, prom scenes, and Thanksgiving feasts, while his most long-standing projects were covers for The Saturday Evening Post magazine and calendars and covers for the Boys’ Life publication of the Boy Scouts of America. Imbued with optimism and patriotism, the work foregrounds classic professions such as doctor and teacher, as much as the conservative stalwarts of military, family, and faith.

Hailed by President Gerald Ford as a “beloved part of the American tradition,” Rockwell’s works reveal as much about his own talents as they do about the story of 20th-century America. This fresh artist introduction from TASCHEN brings together key paintings and illustrations from his celebratory and sunny portfolio, as well as some more unusual works tackling the underside of the United States, to understand an integrally American artist and the values and ideals that shaped his success.

About the Author:

Karal Ann Marling is professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of numerous books on topics including American mural painting of the Depression era, illustration of the 1940s, the architecture of theme parks, and the influence of television on visual culture in the 1950s.

About the series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

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).

Since his work is categorized as illustration and was most famously featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, fine art critics were slow to acknowledge the importance of Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) as true artist, though his work was enormously popular during his lifetime and has endured as a crucial element in America's perception of itself in the 20th century. Through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1950s and 60s, Rockwell illustrations were a part of daily life, showing, as he once said, "the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed."

The author:
Karal Ann Marling is professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of numerous books on topics including American mural painting of the Depression era, illustration of the 1940s, the architecture of theme parks, and the influence of television on visual culture in the 1950s.

The editor:
Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles, and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has been featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.

About the Series:

Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

* a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
* approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
* a concise biography

150 full-colour illustrations and includes 8-limited edition prints

Originally published by Abrams in 1977, Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book is a holiday classic that has remained a bestselling family treasure for over 30 years. With over 85 images from Norman Rockwell's archive of art, this fully redesigned edition brings a fresh, contemporary appeal to the original vintage volume.

This holiday favourite features timeless art, including images of children sleigh-riding, families carolling, and Santa preparing for his big night, in addition to 15 new images culled from Rockwell's extensive archive and eight ready-to-frame limited-edition prints. Alongside these lush illustrations are Christmas poems and stories from beloved writers such as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Hans Christian Andersen, and Lewis Carroll; as well as Christmas carol music and lyrics and Christmas dinner recipes from Fannie Merritt Farmer's 1896 cooking tome. Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book is the perfect present under the tree for Rockwell fans young and old.

About the Author:

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a 20th-century American painter known for his illustrations of everyday life. His most famous images were created for the Saturday Evening Post magazine including Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace, and the Four Freedoms series. The Norman Rockwell Museum holds over 574 original paintings and drawings of the artist and is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Norman Rockwell spent the last 25 years of his life.