Weekend Nov 19 2016
Where is the Artist of America?
Rush refers to Middle America as ‘fly over country.’ Liberals might spot it from 35,000 feet while jetting from Martha’s Vineyard to Tiburon. But it was ‘folks’ (one of Obama’s favorite expressions) in fly over country that brought down Hillary’s ‘Blue Wall’ of expected voters. But this is, thank goodness, yes you are welcome, not another look back on the election. San Francisco’s favorite politician, Nancy Pelosi, is even facing a challenge as Minority Leader from, egads, a fellow in Ohio. So with the re-discovery of every day American individuals, we ask, what happened to real American art for real Americans?
And what do I mean by real American art? By that I mean an artist who depicted real Americans doing everyday American things like voting, sitting out side the assistant principal’s office, or preparing to leave the summer beach house. Yes, I ponder, where is the heir apparent to Norman Rockwell? The McNay Museum here in San Antonio featured an exhibit and explanation of ‘how he did it’ a couple of years back.
Rockwell’s paintings were a staple for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post magazine. His lengthy career began at Boys’ Life, the magazine of Scouting, in 1913. His stay at the Post was from 1916 to 1963. For most of his career he was not taken seriously as an artist. But later as he drew more serious works such as depicting a black female child being escorted to an integrated school, he gained greater acceptance among the critics. 
But my point here is not his lack of acceptance by the critics but his embrace by the public. Rockwell originally began using professional models for his depiction of every day American Life. He quickly realized professional models were not what he was trying to draw. And so he began using ‘real people’ with all the physical foibles of the rest of us.
His paintings were notable for their extreme accuracy of both the people and the scenes featured in them. One might respond that an artist of this caliber has simply not come along since 1963. But Rockwell employed a method that aided considerably in his accurate depiction of life.
He had a photographer take multiple pictures of the posed scene. Then he used a type of opaque projector to display the image on canvass. He then ‘drew in’ the photograph to just what he envisioned as the American Scene. One might say Rockwell was the original ‘paint by number’ sort of artist.
Another famous artist copied this same formula. Remember Andy Warhol and his famous Campbell Soup Can? Yep, Warhol used the same technique. He too filled in photographs of what he was painting. Warhol seems to me to have been more of a marketing genius than a serious artist, but hey, it worked for him.
And while we are into contemporary art, or the lack of it, another name springs to mind. LeRoy Neiman, born LeRoy Runquist in 1921, kicked off his career about 1954 as Rockwell entered his last decade. Like Rockwell, he was also displayed in a magazine, Playboy.
Before dismissing Hefner’s creation as a unworthy of serious discussion, appreciate that the magazine in the 1970s featured interviews with the political, writing, and artistic elite of the era the Playboy Jazz Poll, and fiction by the notable writers of the day. Neiman’s contribution for fifteen years was termed Man at his Leisure featuring illustrations of exotic locations he visited. From that standpoint, one might consider Neiman the artistic equivalent of Ian Fleming who created the James Bond series, also replete with exotic locations.
But Neiman is perhaps most famous for his expressionistic paintings of athletes, musicians, and sporting events. And, what could be more American than that? Today, serigraphs of his original works still sell for $3,000 to $6,000.
These two artists depicted American Life as they saw it, and found a huge audience who appreciated just that. It is said that a college major in art is not likely to produce economic success.
To that assertion we can only ask, where is today’s Rockwell or Neiman drawing America as he or she sees it?
Professor Elam 