Museum plans Rockwell show

Folksy exhibit will follow debut of new building for permanent art collection

RALEIGH -- The first special exhibition after the N.C. Museum of Art opens a new building for its permanent collection will tug at heartstrings more than challenge the mind.

Called "American Chronicles," the exhibition will showcase the works of Norman Rockwell, best known for his folksy Saturday Evening Post covers. The show will be in the existing building.

The new, 127,000-square-foot, $138 million building, designed by New York architect Thomas Phifer, is scheduled to open in spring 2010. The Rockwell show is due to open Nov. 6 of that year. It will include 41 paintings and the complete set of 323 Post covers, along with archival objects and sketches that will illustrate Rockwell's methods.

"I don't think it's a cop-out to do Rockwell," museum director Larry Wheeler said. "It will be popular, and people will respond to it."

By the time the Rockwell show arrives, the museum will have shown off the new building and recently purchased commissions for several months, Wheeler said.

"I hadn't thought of the Rockwell as being a focus," he said. "I've really been thinking of opening the new building as the focus."

The focus of the new works in the building has been on the more than 20 casts of sculptures by Auguste Rodin. The museum also will soon be home to several new pieces of modern art: a 43-foot stainless tree sculpture titled "Askew" by Roxy Paine commissioned for the front of the building; "Doors of Jerusalem I, II & III" by Jaume Plensa; and a metal sculpture by El Anatsui. The museum also hopes to acquire a 22-foot sculpture by Ursula von Rydingsvard for the side of the building.

For the second special exhibition, it's back to old masters that have drawn the museum's biggest crowds. After successful exhibits of Picasso, Monet and Rodin over the years, the museum will showcase works by Rembrandt, drawn from U.S. collections.

The choice of Rockwell is understandable, said Selma Holo, director of the Fisher Museum of Art at the University of Southern California and the International Museum Institute. Holo is chief editor of a book titled "Beyond the Turnstile: Lasting Values for Today's Museums" that will be published in spring 2009.

"The fact is that a museum like the North Carolina Museum of Art is making an effort to please all the people all the time," Holo said. "Since that can't happen all at the same time, then you'll see a series of rotating exhibitions, some of which will be more adventurous than others."

Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers portrayed American life and values. But when he began working for Look magazine in 1963, Rockwell switched gears and focused on civil rights and poverty.

The exhibition will include some original paintings that were reproduced for Look, along with tear sheets of some of those covers.

Wheeler said he expected the show to attract more than 100,000 people, but fewer than the record 214,000 that viewed the Monet show in 2007.