Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Rockwell Images Take On New Meaning with New War

Aired November 09, 2001 - 05:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The other images have -- no other images have inspired the nation like those painted by Norman Rockwell. With the onset of America's new war, the old paintings are taking on some new meaning.

Here's CNN's Garrick Utley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The children sleep peacefully. The parents watch over them worried because a glimpse of a newspaper headline announces the horror of war. When Norman Rockwell painted this scene Americans were fighting in a second World War.

They were looking for security, hope, a feeling of a national community that was pulling together, which is perhaps what visitors to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City are looking for today in this exhibition of Norman Rockwell's work. For nearly half a century his were among the most visible and powerful images of 20th Century America including 322 covers on "The Saturday Evening Post" from 1916 until 1963.

They encouraged the nation to smile even during the dark times of the Great Depression and war. His paintings spoke of the freedom from what -- the freedom to worship and the freedom to speak your mind.

(on camera): But it is a fourth freedom that touched Americans so deeply in this painting of 1943 and still can today -- the freedom from fear. The ability -- the possibility to live, to sleep without being attacked by bombs or anthrax or assaulted by the very thought of that happening.

(voice-over): So who was Norman Rockwell? Critics and art historians have long dismissed him as a visual storyteller who offered comfort images rather than art. But times and tastes change.

ROBERT ROSENBLUM, CURATOR, GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: I think what we're really experiencing here is a great sea change in what we accept as art, what we enjoy looking at -- like what is terrific realist art; what is ordinary realist art; who tells the story best?

GARRICK: Norman Rockwell said, "I paint life as I would like it to be" and perhaps as we would like to see ourselves. People of warmth, decency, tolerance and humility. When racial conflict exploded in the 1960s Rockwell faced it squarely including this searing image of a girl being escorted by federal marshals to school.

But usually violence in a Rockwell painting is nothing more than a black eye.

(on camera): Today, of course, Americans no longer live mainly in the presumed sentimental warmth of small towns. They live in urban and suburb and communities and violence can lead to more than a black eye. It can lead to the 11th of September.

So how does Norman Rockwell fit into this? His works are not out of date. They're merely updated.

(voice-over): The strength and determination of "Rosie the Riveter," painted when women helped to make the weapons of World War II still has impact today. So to does Rockwell's "Freedom From Fear" altered with the news of September 11th.

It appeared in "The New York Times," as did another of his works. Norman Rockwell fulfilled the first requirement of an artist. He still speaks to us.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com