Norman Rockwell: One Visitor's Review August 26, 2010

Norman Rockwell Tribute ©2010 Craig Thoburn

Photographer Craig Thoburn, a big fan of Norman Rockwell, set up his own backdrop to make this wild Rockwell Saturday Evening Post homage to the artist. His brother was more than eager to pose. Here's what Thoburn said about Rockwell and our exhibition Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

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When I look for inspiration in my own pursuit of photography, I've frequently gone to Rockwell's work. Ron Schick, in his book, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, points out that Rockwell was an accomplished photographer whose photography inspired many of his paintings. Throughout his book are photos Rockwell had taken when he was staging his models. Seeing these I came to realize that one thing I really enjoy about Rockwell's work is his studies of people and their emotions.

I recently visited the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum. I listened to a short documentary in which two of Rockwell's collectors, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg---modern day storytellers---talked about his influence on them and the inspiration his work had on their lives and their careers. They spoke of his ability to tell a story in a single frame, why they collected many of his pieces and how much they meant to them as they honed their craft.

As I browsed their collection and looked at each piece, I was moved by Rockwell's storytelling ability. I'd seen his paintings many times, but seeing them in person was a completely different experience. There were instances where his original charcoal drawings were hung next to the final paintings. You could see the story evolve as he removed extraneous elements and focused in on his characters and their emotions. I discovered that even his brush strokes contributed to the stories in his paintings. The textures would be smooth and delicate for many of his characters and rough for others. The simple environments had a dimension to them that brought the characters to life. The attention to details big and small stood out in a way they never had before.

I walked through the entire exhibit twice, and as I walked away I was smiling. Norman Rockwell's paintings tell many stories individually, but as a group they tell the best story of all. They paint a beautiful picture of a very special time in our country and our history. A picture of our nation's greatness, our morality and our beliefs.

Last year I decided to create a photographic image as a sort of tribute to Norman Rockwell's work and in the process try to better understand how he was able to capture such emotion. I asked my little brother if he would pose for a photo. Without blinking he ran to his room, put on his best cowboy outfit and proceeded to tell me all about cowboys, as my camera snapped away. My little brother is a great storyteller too.

• Norman Rockwell, Flickr, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Pheon: Pass It On August 24, 2010

Do you prefer cupcakes or salted peanuts? Would you rather untie a knot or a bow? Think carefully, because the answers may determine your place in our new "big" game, Pheon. Pheon is set in the secret world of Terra Tectus, in which two warring factions, Knaves and Staves, struggle to restore balance after the intrusion of Seers, people from the real world. Knaves are pragmatic, self-interested seekers of wealth, while Staves are idealistic conservators and protectors. Both have their good sides and their bad, and both are essential to restoring balance in the world. Once their status is established, players will be challenged to complete various missions based on the museum's collections, exhibitions, and programs in order to win points for their side and propel the game.

Pheon will launch with an event in the museum on September 18. Come armed with your cellphone and a sense of adventure ready to choose a side and enter the world of Terra Tectus. Can’t make it to DC? You can still play the game online, completing missions from anywhere in the world!

• Games, Museums and Technology, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Picture This: Antiques Roadshow at American Art August 19, 2010

Antiques Roadshow host Mark L. Walberg discusses the shoot while Nancy Druckman from Sotheby’s looks at miniatures in the background.

Folks from the popular PBS show, Antiques Roadshow, came to film in the Museum yesterday before Saturday’s main event at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. While they were here, they went behind the scenes at the Museum and looked at some of our miniatures in the Lunder Conservation Center. Nancy Druckman from Sotheby's discussed four miniatures on view in the Luce Foundation Center for American Art: Matthias & Thomas Bordley by Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart by Sarah Goodridge, Captain Noah Rich by Unidentified, and Portrait of a Lady by James Sanford Ellsworth. I wonder what treasures they are going to discover on Saturday?

• Antiques Road Show, Luce Foundation Center, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Unearthing Family History at American Art August 17, 2010

Hayley Plack interned in American Art's External Affairs department during the summer. Before she left, she wrote this post about discovering her uncle's artwork in our collection.

Reginald Case's Statue of Liberty

I had known my Uncle Reg was a talented artist, but it wasn't until I began my internship at American Art this summer that I discovered he had two pieces in the museum's permanent collection—Statue of Liberty and Survivor. I have many memories of my great uncle, Reginald Case. As a child, I was amazed by the work that crowded his upstate New York house. There was that six-foot-high Barbie Wedding Cake, a mixed-media piece that highlighted the doll on a pedestal of feathers, beads, glitter, and sequins. I still look at his art with similar wonder and admiration, so I was excited to see it at American Art.

During my internship, I spoke with a curator, registration assistant, and conservator who had experience with my uncle's work. Curator George Gurney met Reg and my grandfather (Reg's brother) at my uncle's artwork storage unit in Rhinebeck, New York, in 2008. George eventually chose the Statue of Liberty as a good fit for the American Art Museum's collection. A few days later, Reg and my grandfather rented a U-Haul to transport it to Washington, D.C. Somewhere en route, the tip of Liberty's torch broke off. The work later found its way to the museum's Lunder Conservation Center, where it became a project for Object Conservator Hugh Shockey. On a tour of the center, I met Hugh, who explained how he had reconnected the torch and some loose beads using a hot-air tool. During its stay at Lunder, the piece even appeared in the Washington Post.

This summer I had the chance to view Liberty at the museum's storage center with Heather Delemarre from the Registrar's Office. (Only about 10 percent of a museum's collection is on display in the galleries, with another 10 percent in the Luce Foundation Center's open storage facility.) The photos I had seen do not do this work justice. One thing I enjoyed learning is that it lights up from within—how fun! My research on the Statue of Liberty held not only sentimental value for my family and me but also afforded me the opportunity to follow the journey of an object from its selection to conservation to display or storage at the museum. Uncle Reg died last year, but his creative spirit lives on in my memory and in museum collections such as this one.

• Reginald Case, Statue of Liberty, Lunder Conservation Lab, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Package 1961 by Christo August 13, 2010

Christo's Package 1961

Just outside the exhibition Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence is a small earlier piece by Christo. Unlike the outdoor environmental works that he did in collaboration with his wife, Jeanne-Claude, Package 1961 is a sculpture or assemblage composed of knotted fabric on a wooden shipping pallet. It dates back nearly fifty years and speaks to Christo's early life. Born in Bulgaria in 1935, he left the communist state as a young man, first for Vienna and Paris, and then for the United States. Package seems to speak of travel done not for pleasure, but for necessity, for freedom. Objects such as cans and bottles poke through the cloth, but most things remain ambiguous, mysterious. But the work contains so much more: the artist's history. In a way, we are what we carry.

Earlier this year I had the good fortune of interviewing Christo before the opening of Remembering the Running Fence. We spoke of the work that he and Jeanne-Claude did such as Running Fence and Valley Curtain, projects that used fabric partly as a conduit of light. In those works, the fabric divided, but it also brought people together in a marvelous way. We didn't speak of his early pieces such as Package 1961, where the fabric is linked to a lack of freedom, of being torn or uprooted from everyday life. Perhaps if I speak to him again, I'll ask him what's inside. With any luck, he won't tell me.

• Christo, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum