Updating Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ for a Modern, Diverse America

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Fayemi Shakur

“Freedom of Worship” (2018) by Hank Willis Thomas, Emily Shur, Eric Gottesman and Wyatt Gallery. Image courtesy of For Freedoms

Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” series presented an image of America intended to bolster patriotic spirit during World War II. It was, however, a selective celebration. Using Rockwell’s paintings as a starting point, Hank Willis Thomas has reimagined the illustrator’s vision by recreating scenes that include faces that reflect this country’s complexity and diversity. Mr. Thomas — whose previous projects have examined race, commerce and advertising — enlisted the photographer Emily Shur, the video artist and activist Eric Gottesman, and the photographer Wyatt Gallery to produce the work exhibited in “For Freedoms: Where Do We Go From Here?” now at the International Center of Photography Museum. [More]

Why Norman Rockwell Matters

ARTSY
By Alexxa Gotthardt

Norman Rockwell. Photo via Bettmann/Getty Images.

What kind of art has the power to charm millions of Americans? It’d be a good question to pose to Norman Rockwell, that famed painter of quaint, funny scenes depicting mid-20th-century American life. His works were reproduced ceaselessly on magazine covers in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s—and their appeal was immense. By the 1940s, Time magazine had already christened Rockwell as “probably the best-loved U.S. artist alive,” while the New York Times had affectionately compared his paintings to Mark Twain’s novels. On the other hand, the fine art world’s burgeoning band of critics, led by Clement Greenberg, derided his work as too sentimental, saccharine, and commercial.[More]

This photographer is reimagining Norman Rockwell for the 21st century

ARTSY
By Alexxa Gotthardt

Maggie Meiners, Dream Act, 2016. © Maggie Meiners. Courtesy of the artist.

In 1964, Norman Rockwell’s Civil Rights-era painting The Problem We All Live With depicted Ruby Bridges, the 6-year-old black girl who entered an all-white school in 1960, walking between deputy U.S. marshals with volleyed tomatoes and a racial slur staining the wall behind her. In 2015, artist Maggie Meiners reimagined the famous composition to explore the plight of another youth: this time, a Dreamer—a child of undocumented immigrants given temporary protection under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Dream Act wasn’t Meiners’s first Rockwell-inspired work. [More]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK - Our Favorites of 2017

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

Ernest and Vernieda at the ArkEncounter in Williamstown, Kentucky on August 7, 2017

Of our best museum visits this past year, the National Museum of African American History & Culture inspired happiness; the Metropolitan Museum of Art renewed our creative passion, and a visit to Kentucky’s ArkEncounter satisfied a curiosity. As we look ahead into 2018, we’ve marked our calendars to see Makoto Fujimura’s "Charis-Kairos (The Tears of Christ)" at the Museum of the Bible, in Washington, DC; and Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” at the New-York Historical Society. However, our biggest wish for 2018 is to be inspired by more artists with religious imaginations, like new favorites of 2017 - Jeremie Riggleman, Renee Cox, and 2017 Alpha Omega Prize awardee Kelvin Burzon. Have an inspired New Year!

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest & Gregory Disney-Britton

"Freedom of Worship" (1943) by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978).

Following President Trump's announcement of a travel ban on Muslims, a museum group has now announced that Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Worship" painting will begin an international tour in 2018. Heads and hands at prayer are the dominant features in Norman Rockwell's 1943 work. Painted during an era when white Americans avoided associating with minorities, the artist crossed that line by grouping eight profiles including a black woman in the upper left and a Jewish man carrying a religious book in the lower right. The color choices of beige and gray also reflect that mood. Can't wait until 2018? Giclee prints are available online at Art.com.

Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ paintings to go on tour

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Joshua Borone

Clockwise from top left: “Freedom of Worship”; “Freedom of Speech”; “Freedom From Want”; and “Freedom From Fear” (1943). Credit SEPS: Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN

NEW YORK---Norman Rockwell’s most famous paintings are going on tour. "Four Freedoms,” four World War II-era works inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, will travel around the United States and France in the exhibition “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms,” scheduled to open in June 2018 at the New-York Historical Society. They are “Freedom of Speech,” depicting a dignified Everyman standing up to speak his mind; “Freedom of Worship,” with a group in prayer; “Freedom From Want,” with an idyllic family dinner; and “Freedom From Fear,” which shows parents tucking in their children. [link]

‘Converted Masters’ Gives Art Classics a Jewish Twist

JEWISH LINK NEW JERSEY
By Jill Kirsch

A dour farming couple holds a lulav and etrog in what we can only call Sukkot Gothic.

Imagine you have 13 guests coming for Shabbat, and your cholent burns. Does Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” come to mind? It did for West Orange resident Esty Frankel-Fersel, author of the witty and ironic “Converted Masters.” In her elegant coffee table book, Frankel-Fersel “converts” classic art masterpieces into Jewish counterparts. Imagine Claude Monet’s “Water Lily Pond” as a location for tashlich. Norman Rockwell’s “The Gossips” was hilariously transformed into “The Shidduch Background Check.” [link]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

"The Annunciation" (1946) by Romare Bearden. Oil on canvas

"Advent" begins today with four weeks of being "pregnant" with anticipation, but as Santa dominates, we tend to focus more on finishing than waiting. In response, this year we're rebelling by spending the next 26-days before Christmas, known as "Advent," both fasting and praying to prepare for the next liturgical year to begin. Each religion has its reasons for "fasting," whether Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or Jewish. Ours is about waiting for Christ's birth, and that makes the soon to be auctioned "Annunciation" (above) by Romare Bearden our NEWS OF WEEK.

Happy Thanksgiving 2015 remembering Norman Rockwell's "Golden Rule"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Greg & Ernest Disney-Britton

Norman Rockwell’s "Golden Rule"

On Thanksgiving, many picture Norman Rockwell's "Freedom from Want" (1943) from his series The Four Freedoms, and that's a very solid choice. Our choice however is Rockwell’s “Golden Rule” (1961), where the artist shows a group of people of different religions, races and ethnicity as the backdrop for the inscription “Do Unto Other as You Would Have Them Do Unto You.” Rockwell said, "The thing is that all major religions have the Golden Rule in Common. 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Not always the same words but the same meaning." In that same spirit, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving reflecting on the Golden Rule.

How Does Our Big, Multicultural Nation Say Grace Nowadays?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
By Meredith Goad

MAINE---How does our big, multicultural nation say grace nowadays? Let us count the ways. Families and friends all over Maine will gather around the table on Thanksgiving Day and say grace. With kids, it’s a lot about learning to be grateful Some will join hands, Norman Rockwell-style, and listen to the family patriarch say a Christian prayer. Others will skip the deity altogether and thank the turkey for its ultimate sacrifice. Or there may be a round robin of thanksgiving as each person at the table takes a turn counting blessings from the past year. “Too much of our life is scrubbed clean of the sacred,” said Dana Sawyer, a professor of philosophy and world religions at the Maine College of Art. “We’re drowning in materialism, not just in the consumer sense of that but in this idea that there is no metaphysical aspect to life, and I think people are kind of starved for the sacred.” [link]

Brooklyn Museum: ‘Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties’

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

"Witness (detail)" (1968) by Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006).

NEW YORK---This imaginatively chosen show lays to rest the idea that photography was the only memorable art the civil rights era produced. Most of what’s here is painting, sculpture and collage. The roster is racially and ethnically mixed, the artists varied in degrees of familiarity. Some, like Jacob Lawrence, Frank Stella and Norman Rockwell, are well known. Others — like [Benny Andrews,] Cleveland Bellow, LeRoy Clarke, Virginia Jaramillo and John T. Riddle Jr. — are rare visitors to our major museums. The show gets the balance of history right in other ways too, by letting it be confused and confusing, a thing of loose strands and hard questions still looking for answers. [link]

Brooklyn Museum: "Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties" (Through July 13); 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY; (718) 638-5000; brooklynmuseum.org

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS 
BY TAHLIB

Join us on Friday for "Amahl and the Night Visitors", a Christmas Opera written for Americans. I was inspired to order tickets for the Indianapolis Opera's 2014 production following the setup of our Nativity scene at home. Written in 1951 by Gian Carlo Menotti, it was first performed on December 24, 1951, and he said it was inspired by his forgotten childhood. In Menotti's childhood in Italy, Three Kings, and not Santa Claus delivered Christmas gifts, but when he came to America he forgot it. One day however, walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the memories rushed back when he saw Hieronymus Bosch's "The Adoration of the Magi" (above), making it my NEWS OF WEEK.

Religious Rockwell Art Sells for Record $46M at NY Auction

ASSOCIATED PRESS 
By Ula Ilnytzky

"Saying Grace" (1951) by Norman Rockwell

NEW YORK---A Norman Rockwell painting titled "Saying Grace" sold at an auction on Wednesday for $46 million, a record for the Saturday Evening Post illustrator and for any work sold at an American art auction, Sotheby's said. Two people on the telephone bid against each other for nine minutes before the hammer came down, the auction house said. The buyer's identity wasn't disclosed. The painting had a pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $20 million. The idea for the illustration came from a reader who saw a Mennonite family praying in a restaurant. Rockwell's son Jarvis Rockwell was among the models he used for it. [link]

Amazon Re-Enters Online Art Market

THE NEW YORK TIMES | ARTBEAT
By Patricia Cohen

WASHINGTON---A day after the news that Amazon’s founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is buying The Washington Post, his company officially entered another cultural arena: art. On Tuesday, the online retailer announced the start of Amazon Art, where customers can buy original and limited-edition art from more than 150 dealers and 4,500 artists, ranging in price from a $10 screen print by the up-and-comer Ryan Humphrey to a $4.85 million painting by Norman Rockwell. Amazon, which worked with Sotheby’s for a short-lived experiment selling art on the Web in 1999, will now vie with other, more established competitors in the online marketplace, including Artsy and Artnet. Amazon has sought to blunt some of that competitive pressure by partnering with Paddle8, an online auction site, among other players. [link]

Collecting Charles Bosseron Chambers, aka the Norman Rockwell of Catholic art

READING EAGLE
By Bruce Poston

"Here Am I for Thou Didst Call Me" by artist Charles Bosseron Chambers.

PENNSYLVANIA - Gregory Lynch, 61, of Exeter Township had a physician father who was an inspiration in life and also in the realm of religious art in the early 20th century. A model for the artist Charles Bosseron Chambers, known as the Norman Rockwell of Catholic art, the handsome Thomas F. Lynch (1911-1979) posed for a series of portraits in the the late 1920s and early 1930s encouraging young men to enter the priesthood. These days, Chambers' religious paintings have become highly collectible, his most famous being Jesus portrayed as a young boy in "Light of the World." [link]

"Refugee Thanksgiving" by Norman Rockwell (1943)

"Refugee Thanksgiving"
Norman Rockwell (b. NYC, 1894)
C. 1943, Oil on canvas, (cover, Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 27)
Original: Lost (likely destroyed by Rockwell after printing)