The Collector 1971

Editor: So, this is Norman Rockwell's "The Collector," painted in 1971. It’s an oil painting and it strikes me as interesting that Rockwell is showing us this really intimate and material moment of someone examining coins and the value or labour behind it all. What do you see in this piece from your perspective? Curator: Well, I find Rockwell's detailed rendering of the objects particularly telling. Look at the green desk, the leather coin album, the specific illumination afforded by the brass lamp and the various coins. Each carries the residue of labor. This is also clear by the presence of the two men, likely a father and son or mentor and mentee and a dog to complete the familiar household composition that Rockwell is so well known for. Editor: The materiality of this all makes sense! Why is Rockwell spending all his artistic labor on representing labour through material means? Curator: Exactly! Consider the broader context of 1971. What does this painting suggest about the values and concerns around American labor? Why focus on coins? Think of labor and materiality outside the main capitalist project as a critique of our modern modes of productions. How can he re-instill meaning back into the process of producing things? The hand of the artist then stands as an alternate point of creative material making outside industrial factories, but we see Rockwell’s style become another form of consumption in his very well-known illustrations for the everyday people, the image and artwork becoming circulated for capitalist gain through mass popularisation. Editor: That’s fascinating. So, it’s almost like the painting highlights the value in carefully studying a material – such as coins - while participating in the circulation of materials yourself. It does make me wonder about the place of ‘genre painting’ and portrait art and its relevance within the materialist scope… Thank you! Curator: Precisely. The artist is also a consumer in society’s broader value making – but not limited to. Keep searching, you will never truly find it all!