TAMPA, FLA.- American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell traces the evolution of Rockwell’s art and iconography throughout his career – from carefully choreographed reflections on childhood innocence, to powerful, consciousness-raising images, documenting the traumatic realities of desegregation in the South. Rockwell’s artistic contributions and the impact of his images on American popular culture are explored within the context of his life and times.

For many Americans, Rockwell’s icons of living culture were first experienced in the most unassuming of places, in the comfort of home, or on the train ride at the end of a long day. Created for the covers and pages of our nation’s periodicals rather than for the walls of galleries and museums, Rockwell’s images were intimately understood by a vast and eager audience who saw the best in themselves reflected in his art and in the stories that he chose to tell.

Beneath it all, Rockwell’s hopeful and admiring attitude toward humanity was the hallmark of his work. He loved to paint pictures that conveyed stories about people, their attitude toward each other, and his feelings about them.

One of the most popular American artists of the past century, Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a keen observer of human nature and a gifted storyteller. For nearly seven decades, while history was in the making all around him, Rockwell chronicled our changing society in the small details and nuanced scenes of ordinary people in everyday life, providing a personalized interpretation—albeit often an idealized one—of American identity. His depictions offered a reassuring visual haven during a time of momentous transformation as our country evolved into a complex, modern society. Rockwell’s contributions to our visual legacy, many of them now icons of American culture, have found a permanent place in our national psyche.