Customer Reviews

In Search of Norman Rockwell's America

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When I was in art school many moons ago, Norman Rockwell was uniformly reviled as a "mere illustrator" and an idealist. That never resonated with me, and I was delighted to see this wonderful book which celebrates Mr. Rockwell's work, and by juxtaposing modern photographs with similar subject matter, reinvigorates the paintings and underscores something that the snooty art school folks who taught me seemed to have missed: that Mr. Rockwell's idealism was actually a reflection of values and realities he saw in the world around him. I have on many occasions glimpsed the reality that Mr. Rockwell presented - largely because he taught me through his paintings to look for it. But what really makes this book a winner is that the photographs included by Kevin Rivoli are sturdy and beautiful enough to stand on their own. Mr. Rivoli might have set out to recreate Mr. Rockwell's images through photography - but instead chose to create photos which reflect a similar worldview to Mr. Rockwell's without becoming pedestrian copies. The brief editorial comments by Mr. Rockwell's family, friends, collectors, and models are often hilarious, sometimes poignant, always illuminating. Bravo to Howard Books for publishing this lovely book.

Norman Rockwell's images of American life have resonated with us for generations now. Nearly all of us have seen these iconic portraits of an American life that we universally want to embrace as our own experience.

How many of us have searched for an experience of life in America reflected in Rockwell's captured moments of American normalcy? Even I have gazed at this paintings and imagined the joy of living in these moments.

Kevin Rvioli has done just that. With his own eye and camera, he has photographed this very real version of Rockwell's America. He has successfully captured the spirit of Rockwell's America and what a surprise! Rockwell's America is our America.

Rivoli's skill at matching his captures with Rockwell's paintings is outstanding. Page after page exhibits just how much of Rockwell's world is part of our own.

And perhaps Rivoli has unlocked the secret of Rockwell himself. In place of a camera, Rockwell may well have captured actual moments with his paintings and not an idealized version of America, but in fact a flesh and blood reality that Rivoli shows is alive and well in America.

So take the journey back to Rockwell's America and discover how close it really is.

In Search of Norman Rockwell's America arrived today and I haven't been able to put it down! The photography of Kevin Rivoli side by side with the paintings of Norman Rockwell show us that the America which Rockwell saw and portrayed for us is still out there. This is the perfect book for the times we are in right now. It helps us to understand that even though we've been through bad times before, there is a spark and an internal strength in our country that cannot be crushed.

Rivoli's photography is simply amazing. It captures the same pathos and displays the same emotion as Rockwell's paintings. The accompanying words by both Rockwell and many current (and famous) Americans add to both the feeling of nostagia and the promise of hope. If you have only one coffee table book, make sure it is this one! Highly recommended!

"It would be almost anti-American for Norman Rockwell's work to be criticized, no matter how subtle the critique was rendered. Rockwell's work has become a symbol of all that's good in America, and we defend it vehemently. It is not only the America we wish it to be, but the America it is. Norman Rockwell's name should be enshrined as "the artist who rendered back to Americans the image they wished to see." --Edward Asner, from `In Search of Norman Rockwell's America'

Norman Rockwell--either you like him or you don't. It seems only a sourpuss could reject his famous work as the illustrator of `The Saturday Evening Post'. With warmth and good humor, he did for illustrations what Walt Whitman did for American poetry. He, too, seemed to capture the song of ordinary people.

For those who love him and his work, `In Search of Norman Rockwell's America' will seem like an unnecessary defense. Framing Rockwell's illustrations with his own photographs, photojournalist Kevin Rivoli contributes pictures that have merit in their own right. Worthy of those famous collections by Time-Life books, Rivoli's photos are side-by-side companions to Rockwell's best loved scenes. Showing that modern times still have moments of sublime poignancy, Rivoli proves his point in spades, flanking each pair of pictures with a celebrity testimony about the merits and simple joys of Rockwell's paintings.

Beautiful to behold and inspiring for its power to elicit smiles, `In Search of Norman Rockwell's America' is a coffee table book that's hard to put down and easily will be well worn.

Since the Saturday Evening Post was ever present in my growing up years, Norman Rockwell has always been a favorite. To see Kevin Rivoli's photography beside the artwork of Rockwell is absolutely a thrill. The book shows the photographs side by side to the paintings which makes the point that although styles, ideas, relationships....and yes..even politics may change, America is stiill a wonderful place in which to grow up....and grow old.

I would venture a guess that if this book is laying on your coffee table, it will be a rare visitor, indeed, who doesn't pick it up and...perhaps get so involved in the pictures, forget anyone else is even in the room.

It's a real American treasure...

This is a lovely and delightful book comprising some of Norman Rockwell's paintings. While there are many such works this one is unique because alongside the Rockwells are pictures taken by Kevin Rivoli.

While one laments the passing of innocence viewing Rockwell's pictures one is jolted by the pictures of Rivoli. Does this connote that the Rockwell vignettes of life are still with us? With our current preoccupation dealing with problems of all kinds; ranging from terrorism to social coarseness to the financial meltdown one is reminded that good is still here. It is just that one has to look for it and that a bit harder. But it is still here.

Have a glass of wine or your favorite drink and take a journey into the simpler things in life. A wonderful, easy and quick read that stays with you long after the book is closed and put away.

Thanks Kevin Rivoli.

I never cared for Norman Rockwell growing up. "Too cliched," I'd pronounce, believing that my jaundiced eye was somehow more worldly than the "idealized" imagery that Norman Rockwell produced. Rockwell, I believed, was up among the ranks of very successful velvet Elvis painters, his representations looking like Hudson Valley sunset paintings with a human subject.

I was wrong.

Rockwell represented, with enormous technical dedication, and emotional investment, the America he knew and the America he wanted us all to live in: big and bustling, but personal, dominated by people going about the business of a great nation, but inching from one melting ice cream cone to the next runaway Radio Flyer.

It is these "small dramas" (the first haircut, your date adjusting your boutonniere) that Rockwell was a master of capturing. Kevin Rivoli does justice to this tradition of the small dramas. He does not try to re-stage Rockwell paintings, he simply looks for the same small moments. These photographs take as their subjects the heart of all Rockwellian drama: the magic of human connection. That you've seen the subjects before doesn't make them cliche, it makes them inarguably universal: the old lady and her young pup, the firefighters struggling to extricate a boy trapped in a book return bin (!), two old-timers tilling the garden.

The photographs could use a bit more breathing room--they are sometimes reduced to make room for the commentary on the page, which comes mostly from household names. Rivoli enlisted a celebrity cast to talk about Rockwell. Some might object to the sheer volume of commentary; I'd prefer more of the photographs to speak for themselves myself. I'd chalk this up to a move by the publisher to sell books rather than a pure artistic choice on Rivoli's part.

I'm a fan of photojournalism and the photo essay. The greats (Larry Burrows, Cartier-Bresson, et al.) loom large in my landscape. Harper Collins' 'A day in the life of...' series features some excellent photography. If you are a fan of this sort of photography, this book is well worth your time. especially if you are a fan of documentary or street photography. Rockwell's lasting gift (and Rivoli's appreciation of same) is that he taught us to see America herself in a particular way. We are richer for it.

I do not consider myself to be a huge lover of Rockwell's art as I don't collect it; however, I do enjoy seeing prints and I very much appreciate the mindsets his illustrations represent. Here is a lovely collector's item of a book that combines Rockwell's art with Rivoli's equally wonderful and powerful photos with anectdotes and quotes related to and praising these works. It's beautiful and well-organized.

Rockwell said he never intended to be a fine artist, but he was an illustrator through and through. His work is easy to read and allows people an introduction to art for art's sake. His belief in his fundamental purpose to interpret the typical American in what he saw around him resounds true. He is a storyteller. That alone has made his work classic, withstanding the test of time, and being accepted as art.

If Rivoli went in search of Norman Rockwell's America, he has not only found it, he has captured it and presented it here.

Page after page, the book shows Rockwell's illustrations juxtaposed with Rivoli's photographs. Quotes from Rockwell himself are included and those who were touched by Rockwell's work. One such example has Rivoli's photograph "Before the Prom" next to Rockwell's illustration "After the Prom" and a quote from Jane Wooster Scott, the American artist, stating "His work has touched me deeply, and I'm sure he has been a great influence on the way I paint."

This book, the photographs, the illustrations, the quotes, and the fans make it a great gift for anyone who craves the images of humanity at its finest.

This is a lovely book of photographs paired up with pictures of Norman Rockwell's Americana paintings. The premise is to show a photo that more or less "jives" with the actual idea that Rockwell had in mind with each painting he produced. It sort of reminds me of the video clip with Natatlie Cole and her deceased father, Nat King Cole, singing the song,"Unforgettable." A meshing of two artists blending talents, one in flesh and blood, the other remaining in our hearts forever.....

There are several original quotes from Norman Rockwell and a nice Bio/Introduction from Kevin Rivoli, the photographer. There are also a few paragraphs from famous people, like Dolly Parton, Debbie Reynolds, Arnold Palmer, etc..... some of them owning pieces of Rockwell's art and some just reminiscing about how his artwork has effected their soul.

In these sorry, sometimes depressing times we live in, this book is inspirational and reminds us of our roots and of lives past gone. I am a great fan of Rockwell but an even greater fan of Rivoli. His photographs capture quiet joy and love. I'm proud to have his book gracing my coffee table and home. It's a very classy addition.