Norman Rockwell Exhibit

This past Saturday I went to the Norman Rockwell Exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Norman Rockwell, who for over 40 years, created the cover artwork for The Saturday Evening Post and is known for his other art collections of Willie Gillis and the Four Freedoms. What he is really known for his Santa Claus collection which what many art enthuses argue is that it epitomizes an era. What many people view use or wishfully believe that his artwork is an accurate depicting of what life was like back than (1920’s and 30’s). Of course, this is very bias and different from the reality of the situation but people still want to believe this is true. 

As a counterarguement people can only gather what they known about the post-"Roaring '20s" through either history books or through art. This is where Norman Rockwell comes into the picture. Norman Rockwell presented life back as carefree, were young kids didn’t have to deal with competition for getting perfect grades and getting into the best college, there was no TVs and so as a result there was no projected stereotypes of what kids should be and how they should act. All kids were suppose to do back than was have a good time being kids. This can be seen in his artwork when there was still a magical component to Christmas. The picture of Santa and the Elves has a nostalgic theme that is present not only the in '20s but also when a kid’s imagination ran wild with excitement before technology crushed all of it.