Posted by
Sam Heath on Friday, December 01, 2006 2:58:52 PM
While taking an art appreciation course as an undergraduate many decades ago I received the only “A” grade given. Not just because the professor was so demanding of excellence in his students but because I was so obviously enthusiastic about the subject, absorbed and enchanted by the works of great artists this came through in my course work. But one thing nearly precipitated a disaster for me when I brought up the subject of Norman Rockwell among American artists. I had said in my opinion he was greatly underappreciated and art critics would eventually be proven wrong in dismissing him as an artist.
Fortunately the professor granted me some latitude for this aberration, and I was smart enough not to pursue my opinion too rigorously. Very early I had learned the lesson you do not argue with those who hold the power of the grade and your academic future in their hands. At that, it wasn’t as though I were mentioning Botticelli, Van Gogh, and Norman Rockwell in the same breath.
Nevertheless wisdom is justified of her children: NEW YORK (CNN) -- Found hidden behind a wall this year, the Norman Rockwell painting "Breaking Home Ties" broke a record for the artist when it sold for $15.4 million at auction this week… "Breaking Home Ties" was discovered earlier this year in a secret hiding place behind a wall in the Vermont home of cartoonist Don Trachte, who died last year. He had bought the work from his friend Rockwell in 1960…
For those of us raised with the Saturday Evening Post and Norman Rockwell, from the very beginning it didn’t take any great smarts on my part to know he was underappreciated as an artist. My generation knew he was a great artist from the start, and even in Little Oklahoma we knew what we liked even if we were not schooled in art appreciation. The one and only real arbiter of art, Time, would justify those of us who appreciated Norman Rockwell as a real artist. And given enough time, who can say but what Norman Rockwell will eventually hold his own against Rembrandt “heretical” as such a thought may be?
In my critique of To Kill A Mockingbird I expressed my opinion Harper Lee ranked with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. But the simplicity of her writing, a genius of simplicity hid the greatness of her work, a work that had all the subtlety of the great themes of great literature and great writers; and just so with the art of Norman Rockwell with a like genius of simplicity. But, God forbid! the professional critics ever dare expose their fear of “provincialism” for the all too often shallow thing it is.
Eventually America would hold its own against the great European and English artists and writers, though Shakespeare for example remains the standard against which all are judged. But in like manner as that of critics disdaining Norman Rockwell, so with the infamous and despicable ACLU that would destroy every vestige of our American heritage. Yet, like Norman Rockwell, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, Nativity Scenes, and so much more, these are part of our heritage; and things like these are not only evocative of our great and noble heritage as a nation, but these inspire hope in us as a people with such a rich heritage. “Remove not the ancient landmarks” remains not only good advice, but is an imperative for any hoping to maintain a national identity.
Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. However, the final arbiter of Time will invariably separate the wheat from the chaff, will cull the pretenders and exorcise them. The artistry of our Founding Fathers is evident in bringing forth a nation that came to be the standard of hope and beauty throughout the world. But the critics like the ACLU will not have such an America, and in its corruption of art and beauty, encouraging things like ugly Mexican barrios and Spanish and the destruction of all things distinctively American would make America into an ugly and corrupted image appealing to the critics setting themselves above the Founding Fathers and We the People who know what we like.