Gilcrease Museum Hosts Norman Rockwell Exhibit

Lots of people will be looking for places to take the kids during spring break this week. This week is a good time to check out the Gilcrease Museum's new Norman Rockwell Exhibit.

Mark Dolph is the Curator of History at the Gilcrease. He took us on a tour of the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the museum.

Norman Rockwell did more than 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, but the Post stopped publishing weekly in the 60s, and Rockwell died in 1978.

"I heard guests say, ‘We used to fight over who got to see the Saturday Evening Post first,’" Dolph said.

I was surprised there were so many young people there.

"Rockwell's got legs. He is appealing and relational to multiple generations," Dolph said. "If you are an 8-year-old and you see ‘Day in the Life of a Little Girl…’ it resonates.

That illustration was on the Post cover in 1952, but younger generations are getting it today.

This exhibit also gives us a peek behind the curtain at how Norman Rockwell worked.

"This show is really dedicated to showing how he used the camera to get the kind of details that then are later represented in his illustrations," Dolph said.

He often used dozens of photos of his models, who were often friends and neighbors, to create the final image.

Ordinary people doing ordinary things is perhaps what makes his work so extraordinary.

The Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera exhibit will be on display at the Gilcrease Museum through June 10th.