Hunter Museum of American Art

Hunter Museum of American Art

Chattanooga, TN

(423) 267-0968

Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream

Norman Rockwell is a household name whose artwork is beloved by Americans of all ages.

This summer the Hunter Museun will host an exhibition entitled Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream. This exhibition includes 40 drawings done by Rockwell far the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company of Springfisld, Massachusetts in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1964 MassMutual donated these drawings to the Connecticut Valley Historical Museurn; the other 40 were donated to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. This exhibition will be on view in the Mezzanine Gallery from June 13 through September 13, 1998

Like most of Norman Rockwell's art, the drawings emphasize home and family and depict the American dream at its idealistic best. Some of the images, especially those that portray men in the workplace and women at home with children, may seem out-of-date today, but they represent the ideal family in the 1950s and still hold appeal. Americans who grew up with antiwar protests and race riots, John F. Kennedy's assassination, Watergate, drug wars and star wars are looking back with nostalgia on the 1950s.

The works are divided into several sections including:

All are done in conte crayon and pencil. (Conte crayons come in stick or wood-encased pencils and are grease free, thus producing a line more like a soft pencil than a greasy crayon.)

Norman Rockwell: Drawing the American Dream is organized by the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum with funding for the exhibition and catalog provided by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Search for more articles and essays on American art in Resource Library. See America's Distinguished Artists for biographical information on historic artists.

This page was originally published in 1998 in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information.