World Premiere Exhibition Traces Fantasy Illustration via 5 Generations

STOCKBRIDGE, MA—Norman Rockwell Museum (NRM) reveals the first exhibition of its type, Enchanted: A Historical past of Fantasy Illustration. The show contains 100+ is effective of artwork created by extra than fifty artists whose work spans around five hundreds of years, and have by no means ahead of been exhibited with each other.

Quite a few years in the generating, NRM curator Jesse Kowalski assembled an encompassing collection of work to properly stand for the scope and breadth of Fantasy art. Enchanted: A Background of Fantasy Illustration explores fantasy archetypes from Ancient Mesopotamia to today. The exhibition will existing the immutable ideas present within just mythology, fairy tales, and timeless narratives of very good vs . evil and heroes and villains. advised by means of paintings, etchings, drawings, sculptures, and digital artwork designed by imaginative artists from lengthy ago to nowadays. The ageless fascination with Fantasy artwork in popular tradition can be witnessed in blockbuster movies these kinds of as The Lord of the Rings trilogy andtelevision series like Game titles of Thrones, (and the publications which preceded them), and in part-actively playing games Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Accumulating. Artworks from all of these amazing worlds will be involved in the exhibition, lots of on see to the public for the initial time.

Mythology explores the adventures of Apollo and Thor, the huntress Diana, Perseus rescuing Andromeda with the head of Medusa, and the labors of Hercules. Fairy tales depict the worlds of dragons, elves, fairies, and mermaids, and conjure desires of Little Nemo in Slumberland, Alice in Wonderland, and Cinderella. Heroes and villains observe the exploits of Arthurian legends, Prince Valiant, Conan the Barbarian, and The Lord of the Rings and haunting illustrations or photos of sorcerers and witches, and battles between angels and demons depict the struggle between very good and evil.

Artists showcased in the exhibition involve:
Unfamiliar artists from Historic Mesopotamia via the Renaissance, in addition to is effective by Albrecht Dürer, Martin Schongauer, and other people.

Pre-Raphaelite artists: Herbert James Draper and Elihu Vedder.

International artists of the 19th century: William-Adolphe Bougeureau, Palmer Cox, Richard Doyle, Gustave Doré, Zacharie Charles Landelle, Jules Joseph Lefebvre, and Arthur Rackham.

Artists from the Golden Age of Illustration: Joseph Clement Coll, Dean Cornwell, Rockwell Kent, J.C. Leyendecker, Winsor McCay, Rose O’Neill, Violet Oakley, Maxfield Parrish, Coles Phillips, Howard Pyle, J. Allen St. John, and N.C. Wyeth.

https://www.frazettagirls.com/ An artwork from Outsider artist Henry Darger.

Pioneers of fantasy illustration: Hannes Bok, Virgil Finlay, Hal Foster, Frank Frazetta, and Roy Krenkel.

Fantasy artists working in the late-twentieth century: Julie Bell, Thomas Blackshear, Brom, Kinuko Craft, Tony DiTerlizzi, Jeff Easley, Bob Eggleton, Larry Elmore, Scott Fischer, Kelly Freas, Brian Froud, Donato Giancola, Gary Gianni, James Gurney, Scott Gustafson, the Brothers Hildebrandt, Jeff Jones, Gregory Manchess, Mike Mignola, Jean-Baptiste Monge, Glen Orbik, Ruth Sanderson, William Stout, David Trampier, Boris Vallejo, Charles Vess, James Warhola, Michael Whelan, David Wiesner, and many others.

The newest technology of illustrators: Scott Brundage, Wesley Burt, Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme, Anna Dittmann, Heather Edwards, Justin Gerard, Piotr Jabłoński, Tyler Jacobson, Victo Ngai, Ben Oliver, Karla Ortiz, Anthony Palumbo, David Palumbo, Alessandra Pisano, Annie Stegg Gerard, Justin Sweet, Eric Velhagen, and many additional.

Even a scarce Rockwell fantasy do the job is provided, Land of Enchantment from 1934.

Some of the artists pointed out higher than accomplished primary get the job done specially for this exhibition. In addition, quite a few pieces in the exhibit on financial loan from museums all around the country and non-public collections are not often on check out to the public–from engravings from the Center Ages to the legendary Black Lotus portray established for Magic: The Gathering.

About Fantasy Illustration

Fantasy presents an unattainable reality—a universe exactly where dragons breathe hearth, angels and demons engage in overcome, and magicians craft spells. As visionary author Arthur C. Clarke pointed out, “Science fiction is some thing that could happen… Fantasy is some thing that couldn’t happen.” Fictional and imaginative worlds of magic and experience occur to everyday living by way of fantasy illustration. Myths, legends, fables, romance, and epic battles involving swords and sorcery arise in a world unfamiliar to us. As opposed to science fiction, which is primarily based on point.

For 1000’s of many years, mankind has depicted analogous excellent themes in many cultures. Noted scholar of mythology, Joseph Campbell, claimed that mankind creates fantasy to help us have an understanding of the universe and our existence, delineate very good and evil, and train us how to thrive by means of adversity. Representations of goals and nightmares, fictional creatures, and gods and monsters are built actual as a result of visual portrayals in fantasy artwork. Fantasy illustration interprets the imagination of the “undiscovered self.”

Accompanying the exhibition will be a 256 web site companion catalogue that includes an introduction by Brian Froud and essays by regarded illustrators and historians will be offered on the internet and in the Museum shop.

The exhibition Enchanted: A Background of Fantasy Illustration is structured by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and will be on perspective here from June twelve by Oct 31, 2021. This exhibition will travel nationally to a constrained range of supplemental museums in 2021 and 2022.