Great Story Tellers

The BBC - a leading light of the Brit. Anti-art Establishment - seems somewhat bemused by the fact that movie directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas should collect artworks by that "illustrator" Norman Rockwell, and, with the help of museum curator Valerie Mecklenburg, it hazards a few guesses as to their reasons (title link). Look at this detail from Rockwell's The Shiner, which graced the cover of The Saturday Evening Post of 23 May 1953, and you must see why I regard him as one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. The bliss on that girl's face as she waits outside the principal's office says it all: she has just trounced the class bully and she doesn't care what the principal thinks. She is supreme. CLICK to see the full picture. Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg opens at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on 2 July 2010 and won't be shown anywhere else. Sigh!