LitGraphic:
The World of the Graphic Novel

A burgeoning art form with roots planted firmly in history, graphic novels, or long-form comic books, have inspired the interest of the literary establishment and a growing number of readers. For today's aficionados, graphic novels, with their antiheroes and visual appeal, are positioned to usurp the role that the novel once played. Focused on subjects as diverse as the nature of relationships, the perils of war, and the meaning of life, graphic novels now comprise the fastest-growing sections of many bookstores‹an accessible, vernacular art form with mass appeal.

This comprehensive exhibition explores the history and diverse artistry of the graphic novel, featuring personal commentary and artworks by celebrated historic and contemporary practitioners. Original book pages and studies, sketchbooks, and video interviews provide insights into an evolving and exciting art form. Artworks by Jessica Abel, Sue Coe, R. Crumb, Howard Cruse, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Brian Fies, Gerhard, Milt Gross, Marc Hempel, Niko Henrichon, Mark Kalesniko, Peter Kuper, Harvey Kurtzman, Matt Madden, Frans Masereel, Frank Miller, Terry Moore, Dave Sim, Art Spiegelman, Lynd Ward, Lauren Weinstein, Mark Wheatley, Barron Storey and others will be on view.

America's Camp: Images of Hope and Healing from the Children of 9/11

A powerful exhibition of artworks created at America's Camp in the Berkshires by the children of parents who died as a result of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Many children have attended America's Camp in western Massachusetts annually, where they participated in group projects that provided the opportunity for self-expression, from memory quilts to sculptural reflections on loss and hope.

Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's Magazine, 1940-1960

Illustrator Al Parkers stylish, edgy compositions were influenced by photography, jazz, and modern painting. The innovative, modernist artworks he created for mass-appeal women's magazines and their advertisers profoundly influenced the values and aspirations of American women and their families during the post-war era. The exhibition features original works created for Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, and Cosmopolitan by Parker and his contemporaries...

Picturing Health: Rockwell
Paintings from the Pfizer Collection

Join us for this rare glimpse at paintings by Norman Rockwell from the Pfizer Collection, which are among the finest examples of the artist's imagery for advertising. His heartfelt portrayals inspired Americans to view themselves and their physicians with optimism, and presented the notion that health is affected as much by our emotional lives as by our physical well-being. Rockwell's paintings, which explore the subjects of the doctor/patient relationship, physical fitness, and health and healing across the generations, will be accompanied by original works exploring similar themes by today's most prominent visual commentators. .

More than Words: Artists' Illustrated Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives
of American Art

In an age of e-mail and instant messaging, More Than Words reconnects us with the wonders of handmade communications. The exhibition features more than 75 hand-illustrated letters from such celebrated artists as Alexander Calder, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and Andrew Wyeth. Their communications offer an intimate view of the artists' worlds-their families, friends, business relations, travels, and personal observations. This impressive assortment of correspondence, including exuberant thank-you notes, winsome love letters, reports of contemporary events, and more-each in the sender's own distinctive style, will fascinate anyone interested in American art or intrigued by the vanishing tradition of letter writing.

Frederic Remington and the American Civil War: A Ghost Story

At the dawn of the American Century, an Eastern artist best known for his illustrations in the periodicals of the day defined national values through his romanticized images of the cowboy on the American frontier. Frederic Remington (1861-1909) created powerful images that were accepted as the distillation of the best of the American character, conveying a sense of strong individualism and identity embraced by President Theodore Roosevelt and millions of readers who encountered his art in the popular press.

A Rockwell Rediscovered
The Tale of Two Paintings

Through an improbable convergence of circumstances, an iconic painting not known to have been missing has been found after more than thirty-five years.

Norman Rockwell''s Breaking Home Ties was painted for the September 25, 1954 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. For the past several years, Breaking Home Ties has been on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum, or so it was believed. This exhibition tells the story of a series of events leading up to an astonishing discovery that revealed the hidden existence of the original painting - and an expertly crafted replica.

Dinotopia: The Fantastical
Art of James Gurney

From the soothing, restorative environment of Waterfall City to the hidden wonders of Chandara, acclaimed author and illustrator James Gurney's magical Dinotopian world comes to life in this enchanting exhibition that features 44 original oil paintings from the best-selling illustrated books Dinotopia: A Land Apart From Time (1992) and Dinotopia: The World Beneath (1995). The exhibition, organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum, includes a preview of several never-before-seen works from Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, the much-anticipated upcoming installment in Gurney's Dinotopia series, and presents fascinating examples of the illustrator's creative process, such as preliminary studies, reference photos, and handmade scale-models.

Tasha Tudor's Spirit of the Holidays,

Throughout an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Tasha Tudor has delighted an international audience with her joyful writings and enchanting images. Among the most beloved artists of our time, she has authored over twenty published titles, and her illustrations, or the discussion of her unique lifestyle, are featured in one hundred books.

National Geographic: The Art of Exploration

For more than a century, the National Geographic Society's illustrators have taken readers to places beyond the reach of a camera's lens on journeys of the imagination to destinations that can be seen only through the artist's eye. Vivid and compelling, their images have allowed us to witness the birth of our planet and look forward to the colonization of space - helping us to understand our history and the mysteries of the natural world. Renowned artists N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, Charles Knight, Jean-Leon Huens, Tom Lovell, Robert McCall, Pierre Mion, Thornton Oakley, James Gurney and many others are represented in this exciting exhibition celebrating more than one hundred years of National Geographic art.

The Art of the New Yorker:
Eighty Years in the Vangaurd

Steeped in history, The New Yorker seems eternally new. First published in 1925, the magazine developed its distinctive look and role as the interpreter of all things New York by showcasing the art of America's most gifted visual commentators, from Peter Arno, Saul Steinberg and William Steig to Edward Sorel, Steve Brodner and Roz Chast. Artists of unsurpassed brilliance have commented upon a changing world in pictures - revealing the look, the feel, the manners and the morals of the passing scene as it unfolds before us.

The Art of The New Yorker: Eighty Years in the Vanguard honors the 80th anniversary of this outstanding showcase for illustrators with an exhibition focusing on the literary institution's colorful history and the evolution of the artistic commentary on its covers and pages. Imagery inspired by the compelling events of the 21st century will be explored.

Hometown Hero, Citizens of the World:
Rockwell in Stockbridge

Norman Rockwell painted some of the greatest works of his career during the 1960s. It was a time of turbulence in Rockwell's personal life as well as in the world. Hometown Hero, Citizen of the World: Rockwell in Stockbridge, examines the powerful paintings and fascinating ephemera from the last 25 years of Rockwell's life in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

The exhibition, featuring more than 60 original artworks, includes travel sketches, an anatomy of Murder in Mississippi, and rarely seen paintings for covers of The Saturday Evening Post, including The Connoisseur.

Norman Rockwell's Willie was Different

Willie Was Different is a children's story written and illustrated by Norman Rockwell. The story focuses on a wood thrush with a magical gift for music and tells of the trials of genius and the satisfactions of true friendship. Willie Was Different has been published in three different versions.

The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love

Twenty-three years before American women won the right to vote in national elections, illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley established a unique communal household based on professional cooperation and personal affection. The three artists met in 1897 when they were all studying with Howard Pyle, the nation's most celebrated illustrator. It was Pyle who noted a similarity in the work of Jessie Willcox Smith and Violet Oakley and recommended that they collaborate on a professional assignment. To expedite the project, Smith moved into Oakley's studio in downtown Philadelphia. Elizabeth Shippen Green soon joined them.

Freedom: Norman Rockwell's Vermont Years

Images that defined America resonate profoundly in the Norman Rockwell Museum's new exhibition, Freedom: Norman Rockwell's Vermont Years, on view from June 7, 2003 to November 9, 2003. The second exhibit in a three-part retrospective presented by the Museum that examines Rockwell's life, work, and the communities in which he lived, Freedom focuses on the years from 1939 to 1953 when Rockwell called Arlington, Vermont, his home. After he left the social swirl of New Rochelle, New York, Rockwell described moving to pastoral Vermont as having "fallen into Utopia." The peaceful enclave of Arlington offered Rockwell a simpler, quieter life and the comfort and connection of a community of artists and writers. This would set the stage for one of the most important and acclaimed periods in his career.

The Berenstain Bears Celebrate:
The Art of Stan and Jan Berenstain

More than four generations of children have eagerly followed the adventures of the Berenstain Bears, and have learned about life in the process. Now, for the first time, a major museum exhibition showcases the work of the series' prolific creators in the Norman Rockwell Museum's presentation of The Berenstain Bears Celebrate: The Art of Stan and Jan Berenstain.