Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Freedom from Fear Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms: Paintings That Inspired a Nation opens on May 15 and runs to my birthday on September 6th! at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Co-organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Norman Rockwell Museum and presented in conjunction with the dedication of the new National World War II Memorial, Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms: Paintings That Inspired a Nation celebrates four of the artist's most well-known paintings.

Rockwell created Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Want, Freedom of Worship and Freedom from Fear after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech addressing these four fundamental freedoms of all Americans in 1943 (except of course, for Americans of Japanese ancestry).

Rockwell's unexpected rise to the upper crust of the fine arts world, after being maligned for so many decades, and in spite of the dislike of his work by many elistist curators, has been a pleasant surprise of the modern art scene.

Only Nixon could go to China and only Rockwell could paint stuff like this back in the 60s.

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