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I showed the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed.

Saturday May 05, 2001.     By Stephanie Hoops

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The illustrations of Norman Rockwell chronicle 20th century life in America. His work depicts the introduction of the radio, television, airplane travel and the automobile. Rockwell provided a voice for the segregated black American, and the little girl who dreamt that one day she'd look as beautiful as Jane Russell.

"I showed the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed," he said.

But was he an artist?

Rockwell was first and foremost an illustrator. That is what he called himself throughout most of his life. At the time of his birth in 1894, illustration was considered a fine art. To showcase his work, he generally chose trade-type vehicles such as the cover of the Saturday Night Post and Christmas cards for Hallmark. His covers for the Post began running in 1912, but by the 1920s illustration began to be looked at as commercial.

Rockwell realized there was a growing division between illustration and the fine arts, so he made a scattering of attempts at entering the world of artists such as Picasso and Pollock. But he never got completely through the door. His problem was not so much that he lacked talent, but that he loved telling stories in pictures, which appealed to the masses, but not to the critics. The elitist American intellectual refused to accept the notion that "art" could be something that was for everyone.

His popularity continued to keep him in the periphery of the avant-garde art world throughout his career. He was working with editors in the midst of commerce, and allowed himself to become a commodity fit for consumption. This wasn't acceptable during the 1950s, when the preferred form of art involved experimentation and typical class snobbery.

Illustrations that were named such things as Shuffleton's Barbershop were for the middle class, and although Middle America was growing increasingly affluent, it couldn't be ignored that they read their magazines with a Pepsi in hand.

Strangely, Rockwell's illustrations continue to be embraced despite having been given a generalized `thumbs down' from the art world.

Perhaps this is because Rockwell's illustrations talk to people, and people like what he has to say.

Or perhaps it's because he was after all, an artist.

The national exhibition Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People features more than 70 of Rockwell's oil paintings, all 322 of his Saturday Evening Post covers, family photographs, and materials that reveal his working method, including rough sketches and studies in pencil and oil. The exhibition will be presented at the Chicago Historical Society from February 26 to May 21. For more information call (312) 642-4600, or check the museum's web site at www.chicagohistory.org.