Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
through October 26, 2025
Shera Cohen
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| Marionettes-from-Hidden-Wonders |
Norman Rockwell Museum’s annual summer/fall exhibit usually outdoes the prior year’s display. Cliché, but true. Wick’s name and work were new to me. I was glad that I corrected this unknown missing piece in my knowledge of art.
Filling 5 or 6 connecting rooms in the museum, visitors couldn’t help but smile…a lot. On display were gigantic photographs usually alongside equally large 3D storybook settings, creating entire villages all in miniature.
I’m not sure who enjoyed the exhibit more – kids or adults. Actually, I must “vote” with the older visitors seeing images of 1950’s and 60’s life in small vignettes. Heard were so many saying, “I remember that.”
The exhibition is organized by themes, including Miniature Worlds; Floor Games; Craft-Built Worlds; Optical Illusions; I SPY Games; Puzzle Challenges, Wonders of Science; Connecticut Woods; and Curiosity Shop. A picture book of each category is sold in the gift shop.
The whimsical world of Walter Wick has fascinated people of all ages since 1991, when his first children’s book series I SPY found its way onto the bookshelves of millions of homes. The success of Wick’s books has established him as one of the most celebrated photographic illustrators of all time.
Wick began his career as a landscape photographer before becoming enamored with the technical aspects of studio photography. Wick found his niche in studying perception of space and time especially with the use of mirrors.
Wick’s I SPY: A Book of Picture Riddles resulted in the publication of more than 26 children’s books. His Can You See What I See series resembles an intricate, imaginative, and innovative version of Where’s Waldo; yet this is real art, not just a game.
My two favorite artworks were “Curiosity Shop” and “Pirate Doubloons”. Greeting visitors in the first hallway are hundreds of tiny toys from many generations, stuffed into what ‘ol-timers knew as the Curiosity Shop. The pirate boardwalk, while a bit more modern, was a step into a “Pirates of the Caribbean” gift shop/café – but again, every element was so small that it must have been torture and/or great fun for the artist to assemble and place each piece exactly where intended.
It was easy to spend at least a half-hour looking at each, even though dozens more story villages were around nearly every corner of the museum’s first floor.
Yes, I had to purchase one of the colorful coffee-table books; a gift for my nearly 3-year-old nephew. But I’m not sure if I will only share it with Allen.