Weekend Excursion

Once upon a time in America, Norman Rockwell's idyllic cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post made depression-era Americans feel warm and fuzzy on a weekly basis. Thirty-eight years after he drew his last Post cover, Rockwell's pictures are on display again, this time at the Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of a traveling exhibit called "Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People."

COURTESY NORMAN ROCKWELL GALLERY

Although often criticized for being highly idealized, overly sentimental, and Anglo-centric, Rockwell's work and popularity during his lifetime reveal much about the identity America wished to create for itself throughout much of the mid-20th century. The exhibit explores the formation of this identity through four themes: Inventing America, Drawing on the Past, Celebrating the Commonplace, and Honoring the American Spirit.

Among the highlights are the famous "Rosie the Riveter" print honoring female factory workers during World War II, an anti-racism illustration from a 1964 issue of Look magazine entitled "The Problem We All Live With," and the 1943 series "Four Freedoms," based on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address on human rights.

True to its all-American theme, the exhibit and its tour are sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Ford Motor Company.

—Katherine Hill

"Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People" is on display at the Guggenheim from Sat., Nov. 3, to Sat., Mar. 3. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is located at 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St., New York. It is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday. For more information, call (212) 432-3500.

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