30 June 2015

Norman Rockwell's big worldview

by Ban Ki-moon

Norman Rockwell and the United Nations may seem like an odd couple.

After all, the legendary artist is synonymous with everyday Americana — baseball games, Thanksgiving meals, the ebb and flow of ordinary life.

But as a new exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the United Nations makes clear, the small-town artist had a big worldview.

Every so often, Rockwell said he was captivated by a “world-shaking idea.” “Off I go, stretching my neck like a swan,” he said with New England understated wit, “forgetting that I’m a duck.”

More than 60 years ago, Rockwell stretched his neck into the hallways of the United Nations. He came to UN headquarters soon after the building opened, driven “to do a picture that would help the world out of the mess it’s in.” He was drawn to New York, convinced that the United Nations “was our only hope.”

After weeks of study, Rockwell composed a large charcoal drawing of members of the Security Council flanked by dozens of representatives of humanity. There they stand — young and old . . . peacekeepers and war-weary . . . the hungry and the hopeful — all looking expectantly on world leaders.

The work is largely unknown. Rockwell kept the drawing in his studio, but it ultimately inspired him to create another painting almost a decade later — “Golden Rule.”

That epic work depicts people of all faiths and backgrounds with words that are at the foundation of all major faiths: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Rockwell’s “United Nations” similarly brings to life the first three words of the UN Charter — “We the peoples.” There is perhaps no more fitting depiction of how the UN remains the home and hope of humanity.

In a unique collaboration with the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, the drawing is now on display at the UN for the first time since it was produced in 1953.

Along with a variety of dozens of other sketches and photographs from his time spent at the UN, the show also features works that Rockwell composed from his travels around the world. It is the largest ever exhibition showcasing the global side of the iconic American artist that we all thought we knew.

At a time when many seek to turn inward, this unique exhibition bridges the local and the global — spotlighting a renowned artist who showed the ideals of home, while also beckoning us to the dreams and aspirations of the world at large.

In unique and at times unsung ways, Norman Rockwell continually sought to show how we are part of something larger. Far from being out of place at the UN, he was utterly at home.

The exhibition “We the Peoples: Norman Rockwell’s United Nations” will be on view at UN headquarters in New York until 15 September 2015.

via The Boston Globe (USA)