{"product_id":"norman-rockwell-the-underside-of-innocence-9780226314402","title":"Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Richard Halpern\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: American - General\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNorman Rockwell's scenes of everyday small-town life are among the most indelible images in all of twentieth-century art. While opinions of Rockwell vary from uncritical admiration to sneering contempt, those who love him and those who dismiss him do agree on one thing: his art embodies a distinctively American style of innocence. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this sure-to-be controversial book, Richard Halpern argues that this sense of innocence arises from our reluctance--and also Rockwell's--to acknowledge the often disturbing dimensions of his works. Rockwell's paintings frequently teem with perverse acts of voyeurism and desire but contrive to keep these acts invisible--or rather, hidden in plain sight, available for unacknowledged pleasure but easily denied by the viewer. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRockwell emerges in this book, then, as a deviously brilliant artist, a remorseless diagnostician of the innocence in which we bathe ourselves, and a continuing, unexpected influence on contemporary artists. Far from a banal painter of the ordinary, Halpern argues, Rockwell is someone we have not yet dared to see for the complex creature he is: a wholesome pervert, a knowing innocent, and a kitschy genius. \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProvocative but judicious, witty but deeply informed, \u003ci\u003eNorman Rockwell\u003c\/i\u003e is a book rich in suggestive propositions and eye-opening details--one that will change forever the way we think about this American icon and his works. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47780994744471,"sku":"9780226314402","price":3157.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780226314402.webp?v=1778049762","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/norman-rockwell-the-underside-of-innocence-9780226314402","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}