Spielberg to show art collection

The film directors both have an interest in the work of Rockwell

Film directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are bringing together their private collections of art by Norman Rockwell for a US exhibition.

More than 50 works by the illustrator will be shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from next July.

Videoed interviews with the film-makers about their collections will form part of the show.

Museum curator Valerie Mecklenburg said the artworks "each mean something" to the movie directors and collectors.

Boyhood memories

"Both of them say Rockwell was a master of storytelling, and a master of telling the story in one figure, and that is just like one frame for a movie," she added.

Norman Rockwell illustrated stamps, advertisements and magazine covers

The exhibition, which will run into early 2011, will examine the links between cinema and Rockwell's illustrations.

"Rockwell once said if he hadn't been an illustrator, he would have loved to be a movie director," said Ms Mecklenburg.

The artist, who died in 1978, was a well-known name in the US. He illustrated postage stamps, magazine covers and public information posters.

For 40 years, he created covers for the Saturday Post Magazine, which both Spielberg and Lucas are said to remember from their childhood.

Star Wars director Lucas has contributed the oldest artwork to the exhibition, a Life magazine cover from 1917.

The film-maker's collections will only be shown at the Smithsonian, according to the gallery.