Norman Rockwell, The Master Of Creating Social And Cute Art
Norman Rockwell, The Master Of Creating Social And Cute Art
By Ty Hulse
There where once many "fine artists" who presumed that illustration was a lower form of art, it was after all commercial art, done to the requirements of a buyer often for the sole purpose of marketing. Norman Rockwell did much to help change this perception. He showed that artwork done on commission is often more meaningful because it has to speak well to the society it is done for. Though he created many forms of art much of what he is best known for is his works of cute art. It is interesting that well most people think of cute art as soft animals and children Rockwell helped to show that the idea of cute art is indeed an emotional reaction to beautiful and sentimental scenes.
"The Plumbers" one of his better selling works of art is a good example of this concept, the scene of two plumbers playing with perfume is humorous, and their friendship is obvious from the picture. It is interesting because while most people will never experience the exact moment portrayed by this picture, its sentiment and cuteness comes from the emotional desire to experience such things, in this case the friendship and humor of the situation portrayed rather then the exact event. Obviously Rockwell's children are cuter visually, however few things can match the emotional appeal of friendship, nor is anything more important socially.
We see this theme expanded into family with Rockwell's painting "Freedom From Want" his ever famous painting of a perfect family sharing thanksgiving dinner. While it is common to look at such pictures and state that no one is this happy, no scene is so perfect, such moments do exist and it is these moments that are most important for they make life worth living. Further paintings are a form of discussion of dreams, the dreamlike quality of pictures is often one of the major selling points of any work of art. In the case of Rockwell and all cute art the work itself represents a dream and so becomes worthwhile in its reflection of human desires.
Strangely enough however cute art can be as much a mild shock as it is an emotional sentiment. Rockwell's "The Shiner" a painting of a girl as she sits outside the principles office with a black eye a huge grin on her face. Though few of us dream of having a child who gets in a fight and is proud of it at school this picture reflects a number of things in our society that makes it interesting. First the girls defiance and happiness through the black eye and the trouble she is in is inexplicably humorous to us. Interestingly this would not be as good a picture if it was a boy, this indicates two things, first that we like strong girls, yet in a strange way have reverse stereotyped girls as being strong. This also indicates that we do not admire boys who fight nearly as much, we perhaps expect it of them, and though strength is admirable in boys it is not so necessary for society as a whole for them to prove it, though at an individual level this is not true, paintings however are a macro level of social thinking and so are different then individual situations.
This macro difference is important to remember in the creation of cute art or any art for that matter, for this difference shows the difference in communication style. Cute art in this instance is more of a social dream, more of a bases for all encompassing emotions, and so individual experience only plays into the reasoning for purchasing not the meaning and structure of the painting. This is what makes Rockwell's works of art so significant, for he created such works for social purposes and so reached social ends.
Ty Hulse is a creator Cute art and nursery art. his site is dedicated to helping expand the appreciation for cute pictures and baby nursery decoration and to help artists who sell such art. Currently the site is featuring Cute Dragons. It also has numerous articles on Nursery Decoration ideas.
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Tags: Norman Rockwell Figurines
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