Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) is renowned for his Saturday Evening Post covers, but less known for his influence on filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who have extensive collections of his work. Accompanying an exhibition of their collections at the Smithsonian (opening this month), the catalogue frames Rockwell as a mythmaking storyteller who approached his subjects cinematically and revealed universal truths through the American vernacular. Smithsonian curator Mecklenburg provides an informative and crisply composed narrative of Rockwell's professional and personal life, re-evaluating conventional interpretations of both. Rockwell, she argues, "may have led a simple life, but was not a simple man," and his carefully constructed images reflected the need to juggle a number of sometimes competing factors: shifting editorial policies and the need to stay current while delivering images with universal appeal. Her text, richly complemented by scores of illustrations and photographs, traces the artist's evolution from an illustrator for children's magazines to a beloved artist. Of great appeal to the general reader interested in Rockwell or the intersection of art and film narrative. 118 color and 25 b&w illus. (July)