Norman Rockwell Was ‘Antifa,’ Says the Artist’s Granddaughter

With his strange visions of small-town America, Norman Rockwell’s art is now widely regarded as a conservative force, calling for things to stay the same even as everything changes. But according to the artist’s granddaughter, everyone’s art is wrong.

“Norman Rockwell was anti-fascist,” Daisy Rockwell told The New York Times fortress This week, an article was published titled “The Charm of Norman Rockwell.”

The title refers to a post the Department of Homeland Security made this summer about Rockwell’s artwork. The Department of Homeland Security issue is titled “Protecting Our American Way of Life” and features a cropped version of Rockwell’s 1971 painting salute the flagIt shows a group of white men, women and children gazing in admiration at a tasseled American flag.

The Department of Homeland Security also cited President Calvin Coolidge, known for his small-government conservatism, and released an edited version of Rockwell’s 1946 painting Statue of Liberty Jobsin which multiracial workers can be seen tending the Statue of Liberty’s torch. The Department of Homeland Security urges readers to “protect your homeland” and “defend your culture.”

The Rockwell family has publicly refuted both posts, as well as a third post featuring his art. in a USA Today “If Norman Rockwell were alive today, he would be heartbroken to see…his own work being used to support the persecution of immigrant communities and people of color,” the family wrote in the column.

However fortress The article includes a more explicit response from Daisy Rockwell. “They use [the paintings] . . . It’s like his work was aligned with their values, which was to promote a segregationist vision of America,” she said. “So of course we were uncomfortable with that because Norman Rockwell was really very obviously an anti-segregationist.

this fortress The article points out that Rockwell did directly address the issue of segregation. “I was born a white Protestant with some prejudices that I have worked hard to undo,” he once said. “I’m angry about unfair prejudice against others and myself.”

Whether he was associated with antifa (the left-wing anti-fascist movement recently declared a terrorist organization by President Donald Trump) or broader anti-fascism is less certain, although he did produce work about overseas anti-fascism during World War II. Nor did he always agree with conservative interests. He refused to paint a poster for the Marines during the Vietnam War, saying, “I can’t paint a picture unless I put my heart and soul into it.”