Arts & Entertainment

All-American Artist

DIA hosts Norman Rockwell exhibit.

career telling stories to school and recre-
ational groups, will present tales in keep-
ing with some lighter subject matter found
in Rockwell's work. The family session,
wo images and a program of
which
calls upon Jewish traditions, runs
family stories bring Jewish per-
2-3
p.m.
Sundays, March 15 and 22.
spective to "American Chronicles:
"Rockwell
was great at using images to
The Art of Norman Rockwell," the featured
tell
stories:'
says
David Penney, vice presi-
exhibit March 8-May 31 at the Detroit
dent
of exhibitions and col-
Institute of Arts.
lection
strategies at the DIA.
The exhibit, which pays
"He could feel the pulse of his
tribute to the artist best
viewing audiences and hook
known for his Americana
them into his style.
magazine covers for the
"We're especially interested
Saturday Evening Post,
in the way Rockwell became a
showcases 44 paintings, 323
mass-media artist. There was
covers, and photomurals of a
a time when his work was
Rockwell studio.
looked down upon by mod-
While most of the artistry
ernists; but now, there is an
presents charming views of
understanding of his talents
life's common milestones and
as a painter."
everyday events, there also is
The exhibit was curated by
Judy Sima will tell
a serious side.
Linda Pero, recently retired
Freedom of Worship, a 1942 stories about growing
as collections curator at the
up in a Jewish
painting, includes a man
Norman Rockwell Museum
American family.
wearing a yarmulke joined
in Massachusetts. She also
with people representing
wrote the catalog that documents the piec-
different religions. Murder in Mississippi,
es on view and explores the artist's life.
completed in 1965, shows Jewish freedom
"The Freedom of Worship image was
marchers attacked for their activism in the
commissioned
by the government as part
civil rights movement.
of a series of four to promote the war
Judy Sima, a retired educator living
bond effort during World War II',' explains
in West Bloomfield and pursuing a new

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

Norman Rockwell:

Norman Rockwell:

Freedom of Worship (1942)

Murder in Mississippi (1965)

David Penney, an art historian.
"The four (including Freedom of Speech,
Freedom From Want and Freedom From
Fear) toured the country and were on dis-
play at the downtown Hudson's building."
The idea for the series came from
a speech given by President Franklin
Roosevelt. The posters helped raise $133
million in war bond purchases.
"Look magazine commissioned Murder
in Mississippi:' Penney explains about the
work that shows Andrew Goodman and
Michael Schwerner, activists of Jewish
heritage. "Rockwell tried to imagine the
last moments of the freedom fighters and
used models to create the pose."
The two renderings with specifically
Jewish content contrast with the light-
hearted pieces, such as Girl at Mirror
(1954), which features a teenager putting
on makeup and trying to imitate a glam

ad in a magazine, and The Discovery
(1956), which portrays a young boy
finding a Santa suit in his dad's dresser
drawer.
All the Rockwell images ultimately fall
into three categories: family, innocence
and heroism.
Sima's presentation picks up the family
theme, based on her experiences.
"I have a long list of stories to draw
from, and I hope to include one based on a
Thanksgiving dinner my family had when
I was young;' says Sima, co-author of
Raising Voices: Creating Youth Storytelling
Groups and Troupes.
"I want to relate this story to the theme
of freedom to worship while also showing
how that can fit into national holidays.
People, even while observing their own
religious practices, still can take part in
other kinds of observances."

Jews

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Joaquin Jesting?

You are probably aware of actor
Joaquin Phoenix's recent antics.
Last month, he
appeared on David
Letterman's late-
night show to
promote his new
movie, Two Lovers,
in which he stars as
a conflicted Jewish
guy from Brooklyn.
Joaquin
Phoenix sported
Phoenix
a full, ragged
beard, and he barely responded to
Letterman's questions. He did con-
firm he was retiring from acting in
favor of a musical career in hip-hop.
Ben Stiller made fun of Phoenix at
this year's Feb. 22 Oscars ceremony;

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March .5 2009

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Stiller wore a ragged beard and dark
sunglasses and acted in the same
"semi-crazy" way Phoenix did on
Letterman's show. Natalie Portman,
who was on-stage with Stiller, said to
him, "You look like a Chasidic methe-
drine dealer."
Everyone is asking whether
Phoenix, 34, is mentally ill or is pull-
ing off an elaborate joke. There is
talk he is actually making a comic
documentary with actor Casey
Affleck, who is married to Phoenix's
sister, actress Summer Phoenix.
There is a streak of real weird-
ness in the Phoenix family, starting
with Joaquin's mother, who calls
herself Heart Phoenix but was born
Arlyn Dunetz to a Jewish family in
the Bronx. While still a teenage hip-
pie, she married Phoenix's father, a
lapsed Catholic, and they spent years
in a truly bizarre Christian cult. They

left the cult in 1978, and their chil-
dren were raised in no faith. Heart no
longer calls herself "Christian."

Take Dr. Manhattan
Watchmen, which opens in movie

theaters on Friday, March 6, is
based on a series of
elaborate graphic
novels that present
an alternate uni-
verse set in 1985.
The world is popu-
lated by costumed
superheroes, and
the
murder of one of
Dr. Manhattan
them leads a former
superhero (Jackie
Earl Haley) to reconstitute his rag-
tag legion of superheroes to solve
the murder and possibly avert disas-
ter for all mankind.
In the original comic, three mem-

bers of the legion have Jewish-
sounding names so fan sites have
long speculated whether they are
Jewish characters. One advance
reviewer seems to say that the
character Dr. Manhattan aka Jon
Osterman (played by Billy Crudup)
is explicitly identified as Jewish in
the film.
The movie begins with a montage
sequence as Bob Dylan's song "The
Times They Are a Changin'" plays.
(Warning: There is a lot of violence
and nudity in the film.)

Staying Busy

Lesley Ann Warren, 62, co-stars in
the original Hallmark cable channel
film Bound by a Secret at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 8. She plays Jane,
a soap opera star suffering from
terminal cancer. Jane returns to her
quaint hometown and renews her