Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Rockwell and "innocence," once more

Many Ideas readers have reacted with shock and outrage at the suggestion, made by the literary critic Richard Halpern, that Norman Rockwell may have placed some sexual imagery in his paintings. (See also this blog entry.)

Some, in our forum, and in emails, suggest that Halpern wants to "tear down" Rockwell -- although Halpern arguably treats him with more respect than the many critics who consider his work pure kitsch. Others suggest Halpern is saying Rockwell created "pornography," which equates placing a sexual image in a painting with posting videos of Paris Hilton on the Web.

What I want to touch on here is the widespread objection to the very notion that a wholesome fellow like Rockwell would even contemplate commenting on sexuality in a painting -- and the related belief that to see a sexual subtext in a work or situation that's obviously "innocent" is to have a twisted and perverse mind.

If that's the standard, Rockwell himself had a twisted and perverse mind. Set aside his art for a moment. In his autobiography, "My Adventures as an Illustrator," he makes it quite clear that he's willing to play with the line between innocent and not-so-innocent. Consider this running joke between Rockwell and two of his favorite young-teenage models (when Rockwell worked in a studio in New Rochelle, New York, that was part of a larger building):

Four ground glass windows faced the hallway to the other offices. When Bill and Eddie saw the shadow of a passing person on the glass, they'd shuffle their feet and scream, "Oh, Mr. Rockwell, don't! Please. Oh, Mr. Rockwell, we didn't know you were that kind of man." And I could see the person stop and turn his head to listen. Then Billie and Eddie would fall silent and the person would put his head close to the window so that he could hear better. But Billy and Eddie always ruined their own game at this point by breaking into shouts of laughter.

What pervert could possibly think of anything sexual at all when pondering the idea of Norman Rockwell in his studio, alone, with teenage models? Well, let's see: the teenagers, the people in the hallway outside the studio (once prompted) ... and Norman Rockwell. Of course, nothing actually perverse is taking place, but the joke was hanging in the air, and the kids grabbed it, and Rockwell found it hilarious.

Rockwell is also quite arch, in "My Adventures," in describing his searches for new models:

For days I'd hang around the grade schools at recess, peer over fences into back yards, haunt the vacant lots, and stop little boys on the street, turning them around and sideways to see if they were the type I wanted.

Rockwell knows full well how all this looks. (And the children's parents had a few ideas, too: "He seemed like a nice man," one says. "But I'd heard he'd been to Paris.") It's a very funny passage. But if the reader of the autobiography isn't willing to entertain the idea that Rockwell might make an off-color allusion (here, to the kind of creepy men who "haunt" playgrounds), she's not going to get the joke.

All this -- which Halpern discusses -- says nothing about the paintings. But it may show that Rockwell's sense of humor, his sensibility, were a touch "darker and more complex" than some people give him credit for.

Posted by Christopher Shea at 12:42 PM

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