FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 17, 2024

On view March 2 through June 16, 2024

Stockbridge, Mass.—January 17, 2024—Norman Rockwell Museum presents captivating artwork with enigmatic and magical appeal in its new exhibition, Mystery and Wonder: Highlights from the Illustration Collection. Opening March 2 and running through June 16, this exhibition features selected images from Norman Rockwell Museum’s Permanent Collection, which now holds almost 25,000 artworks created by more than 300 illustrators.

Haunting and wonder-filled works on display include cover art for award-winning mysteries and novels, children’s book illustrations inspired by classic tales, fantastical anthropomorphic drawings, and heart-stopping editorial images. Of particular note is a brand-new Norman Rockwell acquisition that offers mysteries of its own. Exhibited for the first time, this unpublished 1938 work portrays a tense moment in the presidential election of 1800, which resulted in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, with the stalemate broken by the House of Representatives in favor of Jefferson.

“The beautiful and engaging artworks in this exhibition will appeal to children and adults alike while offering a unique glimpse into the Museum’s extensive collection of illustration art, which honors the accomplishments of gifted practitioners working across genres and time periods,”  said Norman Rockwell Museum Chief Curator Stephanie Haboush Plunkett. “We are extremely grateful to the generous donors who have made this special installation and the growth of our collection possible.”

The 60 notable works on display in Mystery and Wonder include: Teresa Fasolino’s colorful, clue-filled mystery novel cover illustrations; Thomas Woodruff’s ethereal book jacket art for best-selling novels by Anne Tyler and Gabriel García Márquez; lighthearted visual puns by James Grashow for Stewart Edelstein’s Dubious Doublets; steamy pulp illustrations by Mort Kunstler and Robert Maguire; mystical three-dimensional illustrations for books and magazines by Joan Hall; illustrated fictional American histories by Julian Allen; illustrations for tantalizing literary tales by Joseph Clement Coll, William Heaslip, Tom Lovell, Robert Fawcett, Emanuel Schongut, and Ned Seidler; a curious Rockwell Who-Dun-It; and luminous watercolors for classic children’s stories, including Thea Kliros’s The Wizard of Oz and Jerry Pinkney’s Little Red Riding Hood.

Visitors and community members can learn more about these works and the Museum’s Permanent Illustration Collection at an upcoming program series with the curator and featured artists. Program series details will be announced soon.

About the Museum’s Permanent Collection of Illustration Art

Norman Rockwell Museum is both a single-artist museum and a home for illustration art. The Museum’s growing Permanent Collection of Illustration Art contains almost 25,000 works by prominent historical and contemporary illustrators. The illustration collection includes the art of Norman Rockwell’s teachers and artistic inspirations, twentieth-century magazine and periodical illustration, and work by contemporary creators. These works form the basis for lively exhibitions and programs, as well as serving as a significant resource for scholarship and study. Alongside its work as a museum, Norman Rockwell Museum developed, and houses, the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, a national research center dedicated to American illustration art.

About Norman Rockwell Museum

Norman Rockwell Museum illuminates the power of American illustration art to reflect and shape society, and advances the enduring values of kindness, respect, and social equity portrayed by Norman Rockwell. A comprehensive resource relating to Norman Rockwell and the art of illustration, American visual culture, and the role of published imagery in society, the Museum holds the world’s largest and most significant collection of art and archival materials relating to Rockwell’s life and work, while also preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting a growing collection of art by other American illustrators throughout history. The Museum engages diverse audiences through onsite and traveling exhibitions, as well as publications, arts, and humanities programs, including the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, and comprehensive online resources.

NRM is open year-round, six days a week; closed Wednesdays. Admission is charged, Free for Kids & Teens. For details, visit the Museum online at www.NRM.org.

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Images and interviews available upon request