Not Just Politics as Usual at Norman Rockwell Museum
"Raw Nerve! The Political Art of Steve Brodner"
On View June 7 through October 26, 2008

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A timely new exhibition at Norman Rockwell Museum, "Raw Nerve! The Political Art of Steve Brodner," anticipates the upcoming U.S. presidential election with the provocative and influential art of political illustrator and art journalist Steve Brodner. On view from June 7 through October 26, 2008, the exhibition showcases Brodner's drawings, which reflect his unique blend of wit and acerbic, laser-like vision of American society, politics, and contemporary leaders.

This is the first major museum exhibition for Brodner, who wryly describes himself as an "equal opportunity offender" of all politicians, political parties, and creeds. "Raw Nerve! The Political Art of Steve Brodner," mounted by Norman Rockwell Museum, examines the artist's vivid creative and technical processes and features more than 100 original artworks. The exhibition presents Brodner's insightful, often humorous interpretations and evaluations of American society and its leaders, including Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and John McCain. The exhibition includes a fascinating comparison of Brodner's contemporary depictions of our nation's leaders and Norman Rockwell's kinder, gentler portraits of politicians created during a very different era in U.S. political history.

"The last 30 years in American political life have been characterized by war, scandal, deception, hypocrisy and corruption, followed by... more war and scandal. It¹s been fun," jokes Steve Brodner, who combines caricature with satire in the finest tradition of such political illustrators as James Gilray and Thomas Nast. "Professional satirists are endowed with a perverse pleasure mechanism; we're like bloodhounds who become elated at closing in on a body. And we provide, I think, a similar public service."

Brodner draws upon a celebrated tradition of political caricature that hails from the eighteenth century. Beginning with the work of English illustrator James Gilray, whose satirical art cast a critical eye on the British government and the governing classes, political illustration has long been a platform from which to inform, motivate, and even incite the public. During the past two centuries, great cartoonists like Francisco Goya, Honoré Daumier, and Thomas Nast have presented distinctive political and social perspectives that posed significant questions about the controversial events of their times. Like his predecessors, Brodner's political illustrations define and comment on society, challenge our ideas, and profoundly influence public opinion on a mass scale.

"Steve Brodner is one of the most important political illustrators working today," says Norman Rockwell Museum's Charles Sable, the curator of the exhibition. "His singular ability to capture the essence of a politician's public persona and his unique insights about popular culture result in profound commentary. His illustrations are immediately comprehensible and often are absolutely hilarious."

Brodner, who calls himself an "art journalist," in addition to his work as a political illustrator, seeks reporting assignments from national publications, researches topics, and produces compelling images that provoke emotional response. As opposed to his overtly political illustrations, Brodner's art journalism imagery is usually not as satirical and is always drawn in series form in order to create an expansive narrative that speaks to a greater truth. His art journalism topics respond to and reflect upon some of our society's most pressing concerns: the plight of the American farmer, urban gun violence, and the machinations of government at the state level.

The exhibition will include some up-to-the-minute work by Brodner, which the Museum will present on a computer touch-screen linked to the illustration Web site http://www.drawger.com/stevebrodner/, where the artist posts daily drawings and commentary. As well, a video installation will show live-action and animated works created by Brodner and producer/director Gail Levin, derived from his current assignment as "official political illustrator of the 2008 presidential campaign" for "The New Yorker," called "The Naked Campaign." These media elements are intended to give viewers a close look at the artist's creative process, as well an opportunity to see his charged visual responses to each day's top news stories and campaign coverage. Museum-goers will also be able to vote in a mock-election at a vintage voting machine.

Steve Brodner's Biography

Steve Brodner has been a satirical illustrator for more than 30 years. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954, he studied art at the Cooper Union in New York City. As a young artist, he entered and won first place in a major illustration competition sponsored by the Population Institute--an award presented by the legendary "New York Times" caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, whom he greatly admired. After graduating from Cooper Union in 1976, he cut his teeth at "The Hudson Dispatch," a small newspaper in Union City, New Jersey, where his talent for political satire was first recognized. In 1977, "The New York Times Book Review" began publishing his artwork, and from 1979 through 1982, he produced his own journal, "The New York Illustrated News." Brodner developed a distinctive style in the early 1980s, and began creating illustrations for nearly every major American periodical of the day. By the end of the decade he emerged as the nation's foremost political artist, a distinction that he has maintained to this day.

Brodner is an award-winning commentator whose imagery has appeared in such noted periodicals as "The New Yorker," "Esquire," "The New York Times," "New York," "Mother Jones," "The Nation," "National Lampoon," "Rolling Stone," "Sports Illustrated," "The Washington Post," and "The Village Voice," among many others.