3/18/02
Norman Rockwell’s 322 Saturday Evening Post Covers
to be displayed at Florida International Museum

St. Petersburg, Florida (March 18, 2002) – Back by popular demand, Norman Rockwell’s art will return to the Florida International Museum on April 18. This time on display will be Rockwell’s 322 Saturday Evening Post covers painted between 1916 and 1963. The exhibit, organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was part of the national tour of Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People. It will be on display at Florida International Museum through June 16, 2002.

From his first cover in 1916 to his last in 1963, Norman Rockwell’s work for The Saturday Evening Post charmed and delighted audiences. Seen here in its entirety, this collection of Rockwell’s 322 Saturday Evening Post covers reflects a changing twentieth century America, and documents the evolution of the illustrator’s style.

For nearly fifty years, millions of Americans brought Norman Rockwell’s art into their homes, where they enjoyed his latest Post cover in the comfort of their favorite chair. One of the first magazines to reach millions of subscribers, the Post maintained a dominant position in American publishing until the mid-1930s, and continued to have an impact on cultural life until it ceased weekly publication in 1969.

Norman Rockwell thought of his illustrated magazine covers as “independent storytelling pictures.” His favorite kind of work, cover illustration offered him the narrative freedom he so enjoyed. It also presented challenges for the artist, who sometimes struggled to devise interesting new subjects to paint. A cover must “please a vast number of people; it must not requite an explanation or caption to be understood; it must have instantaneous impact,” Rockwell noted. “People won’t bother to puzzle over a cover’s meaning.”

A gifted storyteller and masterful painter, Norman Rockwell made the towns he lived in his stage settings and his neighbors the actors. His images celebrate the extraordinary in the commonplace, inspiring us to see things that we may not have noticed in the course of our busy lives. Universal and particular, his striking scenes of every day life tell America’s story with affectionate humor, dignity and kindness.

In addition to the permanent Kennedy Collection and Cuban Missile Crisis: When The Cold War Got Hot, the Florida International Museum currently features U-2: The Spy Plane, on loan from The Cold War Museum and Francis Gary Powers, Jr. and open through March 22, 2002.

The museum is open Monday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm and noon to 5 pm Sunday. Last entry to the museum is 4 pm daily. Closed New Years Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

For more information, please contact the Florida International Museum at (727) 822-3693 or view the museum’s website at www.floridamuseum.org.

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The Florida International Museum is a non-profit educational institution supported, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Florida Arts Council, State of Florida, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the City of St. Petersburg. Other major sponsors include Progress Energy, Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, and St. Petersburg Times.