STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. -- Ye denizens of uber-cool galleries and art happenings, admit it -- you like Norman Rockwell.
It's OK. Rockwell is no longer a guilty pleasure of the art world. Yes, critics used to insist that we, if not exactly scorn him, at least dismiss his genial, sentimental art."Normal Norman," as art critic Robert Hughes snidely dubbed him, was devalued even by Rockwell himself, who deflected charges against him by saying he was an illustrator, not an artist.
Nevertheless, through eight decades he has burrowed deep into the American psyche. The time has come when his pictures, the best of which possess an authenticity and insight comparable to the Old Masters, are being accepted in and out of the art world as fine art.
What could end up being a seismic shift in the artist's reputation occurred earlier this year, when Robert Rosenblum, contributing editor for Artforum, wrote that Rockwell "keeps pricking my art-historical conscience."
Rosenblum's epiphany came, as it often does for one-time art snobs, viewing Rockwell's original paintings at the Norman Rockwell Museum. "I became an instant convert," the critic wrote.
Rosenblum's essay gave voice to a legion of new Rockwell believers. "I, for one, am happy now to love Rockwell for his own sake," he declared unabashedly. "We have a newborn Rockwell who can no longer be looked at with sneering condescension and might well become an indispensable part of art history."
Rosenblum's reassessment continues a movement toward the lanky Yankee that has grown quietly throughout this decade. Laurie Norton Moffatt, the director of the Norman Rockwell Museum, has seen a change in attitude toward Rockwell.
"There's a tidal wave of energy moving on its own," said Moffatt, whose museum is at the epicenter of the artist's ascendancy.
Rockwell's rebirth as a master began in earnest in 1993, when the museum moved to its present home on a 36-acre Stockbridge estate. Before that, the museum had been located in a quaint but cramped historic house on Main Street in the famously picturesque Berkshire village where Rockwell spent his last 25 years.