The Rural We: Jesse Kowalski
The curator of exhibitions at the Norman Rockwell Museum talks about his video series with renowned illustrators.
“Illustration is a field that hasn’t gotten a lot of respect in the art field,” says Jesse Kowalski, curator of exhibitions at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. He is working to change that perception with “The Illustrator’s Studio” a 10-episode video/podcast series in which he talks with top illustrator artists. Kowalski, who was born and raised in Kansas, worked at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh before joining the Rockwell Museum. Ironically, he’s never been a great fan of modern art, but has always loved illustration. Now he works with The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, the scholarly arm of the Museum that enhances scholarship relating to the field of illustration. The free video podcast will launch with a special Valentine’s Day program on Sunday, February 14 with Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo
I’ve long thought that it would be great to have a repository of interviews with the great illustrators. Fantasy illustrators haven’t gotten the respect that other illustrators have. A lot of them are getting up in age, and it was important to do this before they all passed. And they’re thrilled to get the recognition they’ve wanted for decades.
Left: Boris Vallejo, Vacation Poster; Right: Julia Bell, Pegasus Befriends the Muses
In the half-hour videos, which will also be released as audio podcasts, we have a casual conversation: who the artists’ inspirations were, their training, their process, and what inspires them. Some get more personal; Sara Frazetta, the granddaughter of Frank Frazetta, the most popular of the fantasy illustrators of the late 20th century, talks about her grandfather and his work. I’ve been a fan of Boris Vallejo since I was a kid. He’s painted nearly every major fantasy figure and I even had a puzzle of one of his paintings when I was growing up. Many of artists have illustrated children’s books. We include visual samples of their artworks in each video.
The series is a leadup to our summer/fall exhibition, “Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration,” which includes the artists featured in the series but over 100 artists in the entire show. I wanted to do a really comprehensive fantasy show to get rid of the negative stereotypes of this genre. It’ll include works from the 1500s to today, based around archetypal themes throughout recorded history. Kids will like it; it touches on fairy tales, knights, and mythological heroes.
