Greg and I took an afternoon in October to make a trip out
to Stockbridge, Massachusetts to the Norman Rockwell Museum. We had just a matter of days left to see the special
exhibit there titled “The Unknown Hopper” featuring Edward Hopper’s early work
as an illustrator. We were glad we did
as we are both fans of Edward Hopper but had had no idea that he started his
career as an illustrator.
For me, it was interesting that Hopper found his work as an
illustrator constraining and only did it to make ends meet. Once he sold his first “real” art and his
career as an artist started to take off, he quit his job and dedicated himself
fully to painting what he wanted, when he wanted. He said of his art, “Maybe I
am not very human - what I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a
house.”
This is probably Hopper’s most famous
painting. It has been imitated over and
over again.
Rockwell, on the other hand, is well-known as an illustrator
extraordinaire. Today, most Americans
are very familiar with his Saturday
Evening Post covers even though he died in 1978. Rockwell said, “Some people have been kind
enough to call me a fine artist. I've always called myself an illustrator. I'm
not sure what the difference is. All I know is that whatever type of work I do,
I try to give it my very best. Art has been my life.”
My personal favorite Rockwell illustration
called The Problem We All Live With shows
Ruby Bridges, a six year old African-American girl going into an all-white
public school in New Orleans in November of 1960 as she is accompanied by four
US Marshalls for her protection. I find this piece to be very moving and heart wrenching. This
photo was published in Look magazine
in 1964.
I make no judgment here.
Two different people, two different ways of looking at art. Art and the admiration of it, after all, are
among the most subjective matters on the earth.
I’m just glad that these two exceptional
talents were able to contribute such beauty and insight to this world.
But I digress from my purpose for posting here
today. Today is Good Fences day and I
did manage to take a couple of fence photos while we were out in
Stockbridge. They may not be art, but
they are illustrations of good fences and even though it was a very gloomy, grey day, I tried to give them my best.
