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Book synopsis

Norman Rockwell's scenes of everyday small-town life are among the most indelible images in all of twentieth-century art. While opinions of Rockwell vary from uncritical admiration to sneering contempt, those who love him and those who dismiss him do agree on one thing: his art embodies a distinctively American style of innocence. In this sure-to-be controversial book, Richard Halpern argues that this sense of innocence arises from our reluctance--and also Rockwell's--to acknowledge the often disturbing dimensions of his works. Rockwell's paintings frequently teem with perverse acts of voyeurism and desire but contrive to keep these acts invisible--or rather, hidden in plain sight, available for unacknowledged pleasure but easily denied by the viewer. Rockwell emerges in this book, then, as a deviously brilliant artist, a remorseless diagnostician of the innocence in which we bathe ourselves, and a continuing, unexpected influence on contemporary artists. Far from a banal painter of the ordinary, Halpern argues, Rockwell is someone we have not yet dared to see for the complex creature he is: a wholesome pervert, a knowing innocent, and a kitschy genius. Provocative but judicious, witty but deeply informed, "Norman Rockwell" is a book rich in suggestive propositions and eye-opening details--one that will change forever the way we think about this American icon and his works.

Book details

Book category Books in English The arts The arts: general issues Theory of art

• Full title: Norman Rockwell
• Subtitle: The Underside of Innocence
• Author: Richard Halpern
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardback
• Number of pages: 216
• EAN: 9780226314402
• ISBN: 9780226314402
• ID: 06256875
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• Weight: 528 g
• Dimensions: 232 × 163 × 24 mm
• Date of publishing: 27. October 2006

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