Norman Rockwell's America Turns 25
As David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive marks a quarter century, a look back at how the director subverted Norman Rockwell's idealized vision of America, influencing artists like Lana Del Rey
Norman Rockwell's last magazine cover, Liberty Bell (Celebration), was painted in 1976, a year that marked the country's bicentennial. The illustration, a tender tribute to national unity, capped off Rockwell's career as America's preeminent illustrator. For decades, his memorable images of smiling families and gentle, small-town interactions had filled the pages of national magazines, portraying an upbeat, idealistic, and reassuring American life.
Rockwell's illustrations often depicted a serene and peaceful America, with smiling families and gentle interactions. However, this vision of America has been criticized for being overly idealistic and naive. Artists like David Lynch have explored the darker aspects of the American psyche in their work, subverting Rockwell's idealized vision.
David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive, which turns 25 this year, is a prime example of this subversion. The film, starring Naomi Watts as Betty, is a complex and unsettling exploration of the American psyche. Lynch has often spoken about the influence of Rockwell's visual iconography on his work, but also about the need to break open the attractive but brittle surfaces of Rockwell's illustrations and plunge into the darker impulses that shape the American psyche.
Lana Del Rey's song Norman Fucking Rockwell is another example of how Rockwell's vision of America has been reinterpreted and critiqued. The song's title, with its use of profanity, is a deliberate subversion of Rockwell's wholesome and innocent image of America.
## Why it matters The distance between Rockwell's vision of America and the reality of the country's psyche is why artists like Lynch and Del Rey have felt compelled to give voice to the more disturbing impulses that shape America. As the country continues to grapple with its complexities and contradictions, the subversion of Rockwell's idealized vision serves as a reminder that there is more to America than its surface-level innocence and optimism.
The influence of Rockwell's visual iconography can still be seen in many aspects of American culture, but it is the artists who have subverted and critiqued this vision who have truly captured the complexity and nuance of the American psyche. As Mulholland Drive turns 25, it is a testament to the enduring power of Lynch's subversion of Rockwell's idealized America, and a reminder that there is always more to the story than what meets the eye.
