WaPo Art Critic Slams Norman Rockwell as Lacking 'Courage'

NewsBusters ^ | July 5, 2010 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

Artist Norman Rockwell's thought crime seems to be that he wasn't a kneejerk liberal. And for that, he has earned an angry leftwing rant from Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik who claimed that Rockwell lacked "courage" for not glorifying leftwing causes. Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" series? It disgusts Gopnik because it "doesn't invoke a communist printing his pamphlets or an atheist on a soapbox." So if Gopnik can't stand the popular Norman Rockwell, just what kind of art does he like? You can find out below the fold but a warning: please be sure you are not consuming liquids while viewing an example of Gopnik art or you risk spewing it over your computer monitor when you burst out laughing.

However, before we take a look at Gopniks laughable taste in art, let us join him in mid-rant as he tells us how much he absolutely hates Norman Rockwell:

Norman Rockwell is often championed as the great painter of American virtues. Yet the one virtue most nearly absent from his work is courage. He doesn't challenge any of us, or himself, to think new thoughts or try new acts or look with fresh eyes. From the docile realism of his style to the received ideas of his subjects, Rockwell reliably keeps us right in the middle of our comfort zone.

[KC_Conspirator]

I threw my Washington ComPost out when I read this rubbish this weekend. Gopnik said that America is about lebians, gays, latino socialists, and a bunch of other nonsensical crap this weekend.

[hellbender]

I don’t know much about that area, having only driven through MI. It doesn’t look that far from Grand Rapids, which is a center of Christian faith. Also, the whole of the rural Midwest is an area where traditional American culture survives, at least relative to some places.

[cyclotic]

When our Cubmaster “retired,” I decided that we were going to get him a Rockwell print from his Boy Scout series. It was a very difficult decision on which one to get.

[MinuteGal]

Who'd want to read anything by someone named Blake Gopnik, anyhow. Yetch.

If he really appreciated art, he'd change it to Blake Demnik.

Leni

[haroldeveryman]

Here’s the acid test for art critic Blake Gopnik. Does Blake Gopnik have the courage (or integrity) to look at Ultimate Painting #19 say: “WTF is that?”?

[Liberty Valance]

[SloopJohnB]

This vs. the Newsbuster painting in the article

Rockwell would need 'courage' to do this!

Note: Is the document in his pocket the
'45 Goals of Communism'?

[thecodont]

Someone could ‘shop that one to have the BC replace the Town Meeting Agenda in the seated man’s hand. :)

[ExpatGator]

Winslow Homer. My favorite American artist.

[Slings and Arrows]

Maxfield Parrish. Exquisite.

[Onelifetogive]

I'm guessing that this is at least a part of the reason that the poofter hates Norman Rockwell.

I searched to get a pic and found the following site.

Scouting by Norman

As an Eagle Scout, I have tears in my eyes now...

[Liberty Valance]

Rockwell's homage to modern art ... or maybe just to pollock. ;o)

[tanuki]

Wow! Thanks for the info!

[AmishDude]

Personally, I think the problem with artists (and 100 times as much with art critics) is that they’re bored with art. You see this with the movies. They don’t produce things for audiences but for their peers.

But almost all classical art was popular. The reason why it’s preserved is that we remember the best and toss the rest away. Shakespeare gets reproduced all the time, but not so much for “Our American Cousin,” for example.

Speaking of “courage” in art, I’d have to ask the following: Would Norman Rockwell paint an image of Mohammed?

[OldDeckHand]

"Winslow Homer. My favorite American artist."

As I'm a big fan of seascapes and coastal-scenes, he's a favorite of mine as well. I think of him as a 19th century painter, but I guess he did live for the first few years of the 20th Century. IMHO, the 19th century is the high water mark for American painters. Durand, Peale, Fitz Lane, Leutze (sp?), just to name a few. It's really an incredibly rich era for American art.

[kcvl]

http://sfaiblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/blakeheadshot.jpg

[Liberty Valance]

Lacks Courage?

"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and
moral courage so rare."

~Mark Twain

[SloopJohnB]

== Someone could ‘shop that one to have the BC replace the Town Meeting Agenda in the seated man’s hand. :) ==

LOL. So true!

Also I should have captioned O's self-portrait as:

President-for-Life of the Peoples Republic of Himself

[GunningForTheBuddha]

The biggest thing stuck in Gopnik’s craw:

100 years from now the percentage of people who will know what the name Rockwell means vs the percentage of people who will have ever heard of a “Gopnik”.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

I would just hazard a guess that Mr. Gopnik doesn't like Irving Berlin either!