Getting Real for the Rockwell

Today my short documentary for the exhibition "Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs" debuts as part of the show's opening at Museum of the City of New York. Along with my video and Chast's original New Yorker artwork, another highlight of this new venue will be a large mural that the cartoonist created onsite to celebrate her New York roots. The show is good fun... I recommend anyone visiting the City through October 9, 2016 to check it out! 

Robert Cottingham in his Newtown, CT
studio, April 2016. Photo by Jeremy Clowe /
NRM. All rights reserved.

This week I continued work on a video for a new exhibition we have opening at Norman Rockwell Museum this summer. Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World will examine the forces that inspired the relegation of narrative painting, and especially the art of illustration, to a lesser status by mid-century. Illustrators working on the edges of abstraction and personal expression sought to meld both worlds, but cultural distinctions between fine and applied art remained. The exhibition will examine this fractured history and explore the resurgence of realist painting during the latter half of the twentieth century.

One of the contemporary artists to be featured in the exhibition is photorealist painter, Robert Cottingham. I had the pleasure of traveling to Newtown, Connectict this week to meet with and film Cottingham in his home/studio. Focusing on light/perspective, Cottingham has become known for dramatic, almost abstract works of such urban subjects as store signs. He was a good interview, and I think we had an even better time filming him painting; after we were done, he remarked to me that "you're the right guy to do this!" I enjoyed learning more about his work, which is stunning.

Photo: Jeremy Clowe / NRM

Also featured in the exhibition and joining us for an interview was realist painter Eric Forstmann, who has created some exceptional still life works over the years. Both Forstmann and Cottingham's work are exhibited at Eckert Fine Art of Pine Plains, NY (we interviewed founder Jane Eckert for the video as well).

Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World is set to open June 17 at the Museum.

Related Links:

Eckert Fine Art

www.artsy.net/artist/robert-cottingham

www.artsy.net/artist/eric-forstmann

Museum of the City of New York