Partners’ Exhibitions
This listing includes exhibits at Rockwell Center partner’s institutions and exhibits partner institutions are traveling around the country.
On Assignment: American Illustration 1850 – 1950
Delaware Art Museum
March 6, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Classical literature, romantic best-sellers, cowboy adventures, historical fiction, frothy short stories about high society—all these and many more were the assignment of the working illustrator during a century of profound cultural change. Illustrations captured telling moments of the written narrative, and individual illustrators were often sought out by editors and recognized by readers.
Eric Carle: Prints and Papers
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
April 2 – September 5, 2010
Complementing the woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi on exhibit in the East Gallery, this exhibition explores some of Eric Carle’s early printmaking. From his days in advertising, Eric employed linoleum cuts among other media to achieve a visual variety. Some of his first books in which he used the lino-cut technique reflect his emphasis on bold shape and design so associated with his collage technique, albeit without the color. Work from his early and later books are shown together in a thematically and stylistically connected display.
Norman Rockwell and the Boy Scouts of America
Norman Rockwell Musem
July 3 through October 31, 2010
Though Norman Rockwell is often identified with home town life in New England, he was a frequent visitor to California, and was called upon by Hollywood to create imagery for posters advertising entertaining feature films of his day.
This installation exploring Rockwell’s art for the movies features original paintings, vintage posters, lobby cards, and original portraits of movie stars drawn form the Museum’s Art and Archival Collections and private collections of Rockwell’s art. The Magnificent Ambersons (1941), The Song of Bernadette (1943), Along Came Jones (1945), The Razor’s Edge (1946), Cinderfella (1960) and the 1966 remake of the classic, Stagecoach, are among the films the artist branded with his signature style of realism and narration.
Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg
American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution
July 2, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Two of America’s best-known modern filmmakers—George Lucas and Steven Spielberg—recognized a kindred spirit in the artist Norman Rockwell and formed significant collections of his work. Lucas, Spielberg and Rockwell have perpetuated American ideals about love of country, personal honor, and the value of family through their work. With humor and pathos, they have transformed ordinary people and the quotidian incidents of everyday experience into stories that show us our better selves and the values that have sustained Americans through good times and bad. All three share an ability to communicate visually with mass audiences using popular media of their time. Telling Stories is the first major exhibition to explore in-depth the connections between Rockwell’s iconic images of American life and the movies.
Traveling Shows: Society of Illustrators
“An Historical Look” is a comprehensive exhibition of historical illustration which features fifty original masterworks from the Permanent Collection of the Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration. This collection of art spans the 20th Century and demonstrates the changing role of the illustrator. The Society of Illustrators offers two versions of this show; smaller format works and larger format works, to fit the type of exhibit that would be appropriate for you. Please contact us for a detailed list of the artwork included in each show.
Available:
January 2009 – January 2010
Four Week Rental Fee:
$1800 (small format) plus prorated transport
$2,000 (large format) plus prorated transport
Current Bookings:
Large Format: Central Washington University, WASHINGTON: March 16- May 5, 2009
Washington University launches Modern Graphic History Library
Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the University Libraries’ Department of Special Collections will launch the new Modern Graphic History Library with a pair of exhibitions Friday, Nov. 16. (this article ran Nov. 8, 2007 and is repeated here for your information)
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| Al Parker, Mother and Daughter Skiing, 1942. Gouache on board. Collection of Kit and Donna Parker. From the exhibition Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women’s Magazine, 1940-1960. |
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Highlights from the Modern Graphic History Library will open with a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Olin Library’s Ginkgo Reading Room & Grand Staircase Lobby. A reception for Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women’s Magazine, 1940-1960 will immediately follow, from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
Both exhibitions are free and open to the public. Highlights from the Modern Graphic History Library will remain on view through Jan. 13;Ephemeral Beauty will remain on view through Jan. 28. Olin Library is located on Washington University’s Danforth Campus, just north of the intersection of Forsyth Boulevard and Tolman Way. The Kemper Art Museum is located a short walk east, near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards.
The Modern Graphic History Library is dedicated to acquiring and preserving distinguished works of modern illustration and pictorial graphic culture while also promoting sustained academic consideration of those materials. The collection includes artists’ working materials, sketches and finished artworks — from book, magazine and advertising illustration to graphic novels, comics, poster design, pictorial information design and animation.
The catalyst for establishing the Modern Graphic History Library was a substantial commitment, in 1999, of artwork and studio materials from the family of Al Parker, a St. Louis native and Washington University alumnus who is best known for his groundbreaking post-war illustrations for women’s magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s and Cosmopolitan. Yet the Modern Graphic History Library also draws on a wealth of existing holdings, including strong collections of children’s literature, comics and pulps, periodical illustration, 19th and 20th century political illustration and materials relating to graphic design and the history of printing.
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| Al Parker, Tell Me the Time, 1946. Illustration forTell Me the Time by Marie Fried Rodell, Ladies’ Home Journal, November 1946. Gouache on board. Collection of Kit and Donna Parker. |
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Still, “Kit and Donna Parker were instrumental in developing the Modern Graphic History Library,” said Jeff Pike, the Jane Reuter Hitzeman and Herbert F. Hitzeman, Jr., Dean and Professor of Art. “The Modern Graphic History Library is now poised to become an invaluable resource for scholars, students and practitioners — those who will find, within the beauty of this unique collection, thoughtful avenues of inquiry for scholarship and inspiration.”
Douglas Dowd, professor of visual communications in the Sam Fox School, drew extensively on university holdings for Ephemeral Beauty, which he organized with Stephanie Plunkett, curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass, where the exhibition debuted last summer.
“Popular art delivers the ultra-now, the super-here,” Dowd notes in a brochure accompanying the Highlights exhibition. “Often, over-exposure or simple datedness follows, and such works are consigned to the garage, literally and figuratively. But later, reconnected with lost contexts and seen afresh, they provide the frisson of frozen history.”
Anne Posega, head of Special Collections, adds that, “We librarians and curators know that scholarship suffers when ephemeral pieces of visual culture are lost or discarded, as so often happens.
“The Modern Graphic History Library will preserve unique contributions to art and society by some of the most significant figures in graphic media, past and present,” Posega continues. “We believe this collection will engender opportunities for intellectual exchange, creative enterprise and education.”
In addition to the exhibitions, the Modern Graphic History Library will sponsor a symposium titled An Art of Aspiration: Periodical Illustration and American Visual Culture from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.
The event will focus on illustration, cartoons, comics and other images that are not traditionally addressed by art history and require an interdisciplinary approach to appreciate their historical context. Included will be panel discussions on “Anxious Significance: The Culture of Illustration,” and “Periodical Illustration and the Study of American Culture,” as well as talks by Dowd and Wayne Fields, the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor in English and Director of the American Culture Studies Program in Arts & Sciences.
An Art of Aspiration is free and open to the public but advance registration is required. Steinberg Hall is located immediately adjacent to the Kemper Art Museum. To reserve a seat, call (314) 935-7497 or email samfoxschool@wustl.edu.
Olin Library is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sundays. To RSVP for the library exhibition opening, call the automated response line – (314) 935-8003 – or visit http://library.wustl.edu. For more information about library exhibition, call the Department of Special Collections at (314) 935-5495, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Kemper Art Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays; and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The museum is closed Tuesdays. For more information, call (314) 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.
Collections and Partners
The Rockwell Center is a network of prominent museums, distinguished collections, institutional partners, and scholarly resources, whose common interest is American illustration art and visual studies.
American Illustration Collections and Network Partners:
Please note: This is a partial list.
Brandywine River Museum
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
American illustration is a major component of the museum’s collection. The collection includes illustrations by many of the 19th and 20th century American illustrators Howard Pyle, Rockwell Kent, Edward Gorey, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), N. C. Wyeth.
Delaware Art Museum
Wilmington, Delaware
The museum’s creation dates from a few months after the passing of the illustrator and illustration teacher Howard Pyle and focuses on his work and that of his students. There is also the country’s largest collection of illustration work by the American realist artist John Sloan.
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
Amherst, Massachusetts
This collection is comprised of original examples of contemporary picture book illustration.
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
In L.C.’s department of Prints and Photographs is an extensive collection of American illustration art and material culture.
Farnsworth Museum
Rockland, Maine
The Wyeth Center, which features artworks by N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, and James Wyeth. The museum collection includes one original painting by Norman Rockwell, created for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
Museum of the City of New York
New York City
Illustration art highlighting the evolution of New York City, including works by Rea Irvin, Mary Petty, Helen Hockinson, and many others.
Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators
New York City
Collections featuring works by historical and contemporary illustrators.
National Museum of American Illustration
Newport, Rhode Island
(Affiliated with American Illustrators Gallery, New York City)
A collection of American illustration art from its early years through “Golden Age” illustrators including Howard Pyle, N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Dean Cornwell, J. C. Leyendecker, and Mead Shaeffer; works by Norman Rockwell and many others.
New Britain Museum of American Art
New Britain, Connecticut
Over 1,400 works of original American illustration art on rotating display.
New York State Museum
Albany, New York
Natural and cultural history collections consists of approximately 20,000 illustrations that have been created primarily for publication. These feature subjects in the fields of Anthropology, Biology, Geology, History, and Paleontology. There are at least 5,000 archeological and ethnological illustrations, valuable as documents of time and history. Of the biological illustrations, 1,962 are by Charles H. Peck, the museum mycologist from 1868-1913.
Norman Rockwell Museum
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
More than 700 original works by Norman Rockwell and also a growing collection of work by other American illustrators including Howard Pyle, N. C. Wyeth, Edmund Dulac, Thomas Fogarty, among others.
Williams College Museum of Art
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Political cartoons, including the works of Thomas Nast.
American Illustrators Gallery
New York City
Illustration House Gallery
New York City
NASA
Florida and Texas Paintings highlighting notable moments in space research and flight.
National Postal Service
Washington, D.C.
United States Armed Forces
Dodd Center, University of Connecticut
Storrs, Connecticut
Original picturebook art including works by Barry Moser, Jane Dyer, Tommy DiPaola, and others.
Mazza Museum, University of Findlay
Findlay, Ohio
Picturebook Art.
Cartoon Research Library, Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
Comic Art Collections including original and published work.
Cartoon Research Library, Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
Comic art collections and annual symposium/festival.
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
General Collections and the Roger Duvoisin Gallery for Children’s Books.
Gallery of Art, University of Delaware
Newark, Delaware
Special Collections show the development of botanical illustration from early printed books to the present day.
Modern Graphic History Library, Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri
Art and archival materials by contemporary illustrators, including Al Parker, Robert Weaver, Robert Andrew Parker.
Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York
The Research Center collections focus on the art of many English illustrators and the American illustrator Maxfield Parrish. The collections also have a concentration of the political side of illustration via cartooning in the work of William Gropper and others.
Partners
Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA
Cabinet of American Illustration, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Eric Carle Museum, Amherst, MA
Farnsworth Museum, Rockport, ME
Hallmark Cards, Kansas City, MO
Illustration House, New York, NY
Kelly Collection of American Illustration, Great Falls, VA
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
Schoonover Studios, Ltd., Wilmington, DE
Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
Washington University, St. Louis, MO
The Wolfsonian, Florida International University, Miami Beach, FL