STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.- Norman Rockwell Museum continues its Distinguished Illustrator Series this spring with an exhibition showcasing the work of R.O. Blechman, an award-winning illustrator, animator, children’s book author, graphic novelist, and editorial cartoonist, whose work has become instantly recognizable to many readers. R.O. Blechman: The Inquiring Line will be on view at the Museum from May 11 through June 30, 2013.

With a career spanning the past six decades, R.O. (Bob) Blechman has become well known for his memorable advertisements for Capezio and Alka-Seltzer (featuring a talking stomach), and for his witty and expressive cartoon illustrations for The New Yorker, New York Times, and The Huffington Post. Along the way he has received many prestigious professional honors, including membership in the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, Designer’s Hall of Fame, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Cartoonists Society. The artist’s work has also been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1984 he won an Emmy as director of the PBS program, The Soldier’s Tale. The exhibition R.O Blechman: The Inquiring Line offers a thorough retrospective of the artist’s imagery for magazines, illustrated books, advertisements and animations.

“Throughout his celebrated career, Bob Blechman’s inquiring line has engaged and entertained us,” notes Joyce K. Schiller, PhD., curator of the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies. “Quavering and active with telling starts and stops, the marks of the artist’s hand are an essential aspect of his art. His fine calligraphic strokes are a kind of nervous energy that gives the sense that his drawings could spring from the page. Norman Rockwell Museum is honored to celebrate Bob’s artistic contributions, which have been tickling and inspiring us for nearly 60 years.”