To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America

“To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America,” a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum that just opened at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., will be on view at the Georgia Museum of Art from Feb. 18 to April 16, 2012.

George Ault’s paintings exemplify personal worlds of clarity he used to offset the turbulent 1940s and a real world he felt was in crisis. Many of his works of art, which are some of the most original paintings made in America during those years, have yet to be seen. Ault and other artists, such as Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth, confronted the chaos and devastating uncertainty of the war-time turmoil of those years through their paintings, revealing an aesthetic of 1940s American art that has not been previously identified.

This is the first major exhibition of Ault’s work in more than 20 years and includes 47 paintings and drawings by Ault and his contemporaries. It centers on five paintings Ault made between 1943 and 1948 depicting the crossroads of Russell’s Corners in Woodstock, N.Y.

This exhibition will also be featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

Learn more about this exhibition here.

Image Caption: 

George Ault (1891–1948)

Bright Light at Russell's Corners, 1946.

Oil on canvas. 19 5/8 x 25 inches.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lawrence

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg Present: Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell, Shadow Artist

What do George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have in common? Suspenseful movies, multiple prestigious awards and apparently, a taste for Norman Rockwell paintings.

Last week, the Smithsonian American Art Museum opened an exhibition featuring 57 major works by Rockwell from the private collections of Lucas and Spielberg. “Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg” is set to run until Jan. 2, 2011.

The mutual interest in Rockwell’s art shared by Lucas and Spielberg may be more than just coincidence. Perhaps the two famous filmmakers closely identify with Rockwell’s work because of the artist’s own interest in the industry that made Lucas and Spielberg household names. The exhibition is the first to explore in depth the connections between the artist’s depictions of American life and the movie-making industry.

Throughout his life, Rockwell took notice of the glamour of Hollywood and its effects on the American lifestyle. During the 1930s and 1940s, Rockwell became further immersed in the culture of the filmmaking industry through his frequent trips to Los Angeles and even designed movie posters for several studios.

This exposure to the movie-making process may have influenced the way he created his paintings: Rockwell truly “staged” his images. He held auditions for his “cast,” and paid particular attention to costumes, props and lighted sets. He even once commented, “If I hadn’t become a painter, I would have liked to have been a movie director.”

But the connections between Rockwell’s art and the movies extend beyond the artist’s staging process. Rockwell’s paintings are also narratives describing American culture and small-town values.

“Norman Rockwell is an artist and a storyteller who captured universal truths about Americans that tell us a lot about who we are as a people,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Like Rockwell, both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg embrace the idea that ordinary people can become unlikely heroes,” she continued.

The exhibition will also include a 12-minute film, coproduced by the museum and filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau and featuring interviews with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. For more information, click here.

Countdown to the 1000th blog post: 8 to go!

Museums Are Essential to Our National Heritage

That's the name of a petition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution at this Web site. It reads as follows:

Do you remember your first visit to a museum? You may have uncovered a passion for geology as a student on a field trip. Or realized you wanted to be a pilot while gazing up at the Spirit of St. Louis. Or maybe you started visiting museums with your children, and watched as they touched a rock from the moon or stared wide-eyed at a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil.

Every year, millions of visitors pass through the doors of America's history, science and art museums. One of the principal goals of these institutions is to create lifelong memories of discovery for visitors.

Museums are an integral part of American culture. What is your favorite museum story, memory or exhibit?

The goal is 15,000 signatures, and it's currently up to 9,375. We encourage you to sign it, but also to browse through the comments left so far in answer to the last question. A surprising number of them reference the "Night at the Museum" movies, and they're pretty heavy on the exclamation points, but they show a wonderful range of personal responses to many different kinds of museums.