The Norman Rockwell Museum and the Norman Rockwell Family jointly announced Wednesday the launch of an NFT-backed, multi-part series that will offer collectors the opportunity to own several digital and physical works by the late artist—including a number of never-before-published images and process works from the Norman Rockwell archives.
The series, titled “Studio Sessions: The Norman Rockwell Collection,” marks the first foray by the Rockwell estate into NFTs. It was produced in collaboration with Iconic, a digital platform that assists traditional art institutions in experimenting with emerging technologies. Iconic worked earlier this year with the Jackson Pollock Studio to release a similar collection of NFTs on the Ethereum network.
“Studio Sessions” will be released on November 1, on Iconic’s website. Until then, details on which works will comprise the collection will be kept under wraps. The NFTs will be available for purchase via credit card or with Ethereum, though price points for each piece have not yet been revealed.
Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Norman Rockwell Museum’s core missions of ensuring public access to Rockwell’s works, nurturing a new generation of illustrators, and the Norman Rockwell Family’s administration of the artist’s work and legacy.
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Rockwell, who died in 1978, was an American painter whose works gained mass popularity, and, later, critical acclaim for their depiction of everyday scenes in twentieth-century American life and culture.
“Studio Sessions” will include peeks at the thousands of preliminary sketches, photography sessions, drawings, and painted color studies that informed each of Rockwell’s paintings. Every “Session” as a part of the series will focus on a particular, celebrated Rockwell painting, and every NFT from the collection will come with a matching, limited-edition, museum-quality print.
“We see our entry into the world of digital editions as a new way to carry forward and deepen our crucial cultural work to preserve, present, and champion Norman Rockwell and illustration art,” Norton Moffatt, director of the Rockwell Museum, said in a statement. “This project advances our commitment to meaningful and artistically rich innovation.”
