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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Laura Claridge

Aired January 12, 2002 - 08:57   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as we told you earlier, the works of Norman Rockwell are on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The book, "Norman Rockwell: A Life" gives us insight into one of America's best loved artists.

Author Laura Claridge joins us now from New York to share what she learned about this artist. Good to see you, Laura.

LAURA CLARIDGE, AUTHOR, "NORMAN ROCKWELL: A LIFE": Hi, Kyra. Good to see you, too.

PHILLIPS: Well, I'm curious. We've heard so much about Norman Rockwell lately. I mean everybody knows the name. But even more so now, do you think that this war against terror and what happened on September 11 is even bringing home even more so what Norman Rockwell was trying to talk about about such a special America?

CLARIDGE: I think so. I think so on two levels. One, the idea that what's worth fighting for in this country, that domestic sense of what's small but so vital to everyone's joy. And then on the other hand, his kind of intelligent patriotism. If you go look at those four freedoms, they're not knee jerk patriotism. There's a real thoughtfulness. And I think on both levels he's very much a man of the moment.

PHILLIPS: And he sort of created this double image of small town America that never really existed. Do you think now so or now more than any time people are really drawn to this because of this image he saw of America?

CLARIDGE: Yes, and I think, you know, all along, even in the '30s and '40s, '50s, Rockwell was painting an idealized form of a domestic small scene, of the idealized America that he knew never really was, you know, in its entirety. And now I think any time you're in a period of crisis, what you look for are those ideals. You realize, and I think almost all of us know that life was not ever this simple. It's a golden age he's representing, which is always, you know, a falseness necessarily.

But I think it shows us right now what it is that we want most of all, what we strive for, the community that supports each other. You know, the child can run away and everyone contributes to his well being. The child caught at the swimming hole is not going to get into too much trouble. The married couple with minor problems, you know, nothing major, there's a spat over the newspaper article or whatever.

But these are ideals and I think that we're reminded by Rockwell's art right now that this is what we really want. It's not the, you know, the salary of $200,000 or whatever. This is what we're aiming at and this is why it's worth, in many people's view, sending soldiers to die.

PHILLIPS: Well, you reveal a lot about his life in your book. I found it very interesting. I guess I never realized he was so depressed.

CLARIDGE: Yes, indeed. And throughout his life. I mean at least from his late teens to the end of his life. He was a man of real contradictions because he kept such a, he put forth such a genial, happy face to the world. But he had this low level of depression that he actually ended up having to, you know, be medicated for as well as psychotherapy, and actually at moments of his life was suicidal.

By the way, let me just say that I admire most of all, I think, about anything in this man's life that he did not try to hide this mental illness. He was quite forthright about it. It's just people didn't want to hear about it. It didn't seem to go along with the other side of him. And he was also honest about his wife's even more serious mental illness.

PHILLIPS: Well, sometimes the most troubled minds are the most brilliant.

Laura Claridge, thank you so much. Your book is terrific.

CLARIDGE: Thanks. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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