Textile museum here at the campus of George Washington university in the heart of washington, d. C. Norman rockwell freedom exhibition is a major traveling International Show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Norman Rockwell museum, the 75th anniversary of dday, and putting on the road great images that Norman Rockwell painted that really created the concepts of the four freedoms that made real the statements that president roosevelt expressed in the state of the Union Address in 1941. This is freedom of speech and expression. Everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person who worships god in his own way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which translated in the world forum means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom of fear. Which translated in the world terms means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation would be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor anywhere in the world. [applause] john what people forget today is that the concept of four freedoms did not take immediate hold on the national psyche. A few artists made images of freedoms. There was talk of freedoms, but it didnt capture the imagination in any way that people would be excited about until Norman Rockwell. Rockwells four paintings of the four freedoms encapsulated, made understandable and tangible the values of those freedoms and were, arguably, the most prominent and Public Images domestic images of world war ii and unified the nation. The exhibition begins with some early rockwell paintings at the time of the new deal, the depression era, giving a new sense of what america was like prior to world war ii. And then it goes straight into the war years with videos of fdrs four freedoms speech, and some reactions to it from other artists trying to encapsulate the four freedoms in art and other images of world war ii, following the introduction of fdrs state of the Union Address of 1941. We look at some of rockwells early war images, images that were about the common person joining the military and what military life was like. A more lighthearted approach and then relive the heart of the exhibition is rockwells wrestling with these images and coming up with imagery that would capture the ideals in a convincing manner and then the spread of those images across the united states, first through magazines, then through posters. The war bond drive, ultimately leading towards the end of world war ii. The show culminates with some of rockwells great and lesserknown works that confront civil rights. And reimagine, i think, the values of the nation. Finally as a coda to the exhibition, the Rockwell Museum organized some 40 artists work to be shown, work that was done contemporarily today, work by Living Artists to reflect on the values of four freedoms, or think about them and show a different context of how we might think of them today. Well, lets begin our tour. I would like to show you before we look at the four freedoms, i would like to show you the earliest images rock made of well world war ii. He conceived a character named Willie Gillis who is actually a 15yearold boy at the time, too young to enlist. But he created a series of images, paintings for the saturday evening post, that were a lighthearted look at life in the military. One of his more famous ones is Willie Gillis receiving the care package. And so you can see he has received the box of goodies and he has made quite a few friends. The friends have lined up all looking at his package. It became kind of a lighthearted symbol of the military together, life on the base, training, and this kind of thing. And it would have been a cover for the saturday evening post. Today, sometimes these images change a little bit subsequent to their publishing on the post. I can show you in this one exactly what i mean. But first let me it is important for us to know that these images for rockwell were valuable as photographs to go on the cover of a magazine. The pictures themselves were not intended for museum use or sale or these kind of things as we think about in the art world. There were images to be photographed, and he was paid for the photograph, the image to cover, and they gave the painting back to him. So rockwell retained the picture, and after they had been published later on, sometimes the image of the paintings themselves would have been given away or sold to others. This one, i am pretty sure, was sold to someone else. I can show you why. If you look at the background and actually look at the hands, this is a magnificent painting. This is an artist who has command of his craft and can reproduce the visual imagery in a meticulous manner. Rockwell, his brush and his reproductive skills were as good as good as a photograph, sometimes better. If you look back, you see the get the background gets murky, and all of a sudden a great painter has sprayed some paint on the sleeve on his image. Rockwell didnt do that. Somebody did it to later when they painted the background and took out the lines from the saturday evening post. There are other images of Willie Gillis. This one was never published. Willie, the young recruit, remember he was too young to recruit but posing in this picture, the rabbits foot for good luck, looking starry eyed naively as these hardened citizens are eating, smoking, looking around, the veterans of war. It was actually thought about as a little bit too harsh a contrast and not published in the saturday evening post. This painting just to the side of it here, really one of the better Willie Gillis images, one of the more poignant ones. Willie in a place of worship with military superiors in front and behind thinking about what is to come. The painting here, war news, was painted by rockwell late in 1944. And it is an image of people in smalltown america listening to their news, getting their news from a newspaper and the radio in the back. It is really a magnificent composition in that the artist takes you through the counter to this group of people listening, watching. Ears, eyes, hands, all coming together. We know from a sketch that the newspaper was to have on its cover a headline that says war plans for france. So there was a potential invasion of france talked about prior to dday on the radio. And the figures here are gathering the news, listening to the news as they would have and showing the concern of the people at home about the war abroad. This was actually not a cover and was not submitted to the saturday evening post because rockwell considered it too subtle and too hard for people to understand and read. He made another picture about the radio elsewhere in the exhibition. And this image of the poster is the only image that rockwell painted of actual combat taking place. Rockwell was uncomfortable of with the concept of painting war in action. That was not really what he did, but he did this one showing the bullets being spent. Lets give him enough and on time. It was a poster to rally the factory workers. The munitions plants to excite the people on the homefront to support the war effort. And this was an image meant to show that bullets are needed and this fighting figure, still with all the details of rockwell, the realistic imagery and all of this, very cleverly covers his face so that the fighter is an everyman, an anyman fighting for the values of the nation. Norman rockwells quest to paint the four freedoms actually begin began in failure. He came to washington, dc and presented them at the office of war information. The leadership at the time rejected the idea and sent him away without a commission to paint roosevelts four freedoms. On his trip home, however, he stopped in philadelphia and met with his editors of the saturday evening post, who embraced the idea and instructed rockwell to go home, not to work on other features, but to focus on the four freedoms. He was given three months to do the four freedoms. It took him seven to conceive and paint the pictures once he began. The First Painting that he worked on, the one that gave him the inspiration of the series was freedom of speech. As rockwell recalls in his biography, he woke up he was struggling as rockwell always did, struggling to come up with the concept, the idea of how he would embody an abstract idea such as freedom of speech. And he says he woke up one night and recalled a meeting in the town of arlington where he lived at the time, and a debate that took place in arlington about whether or not to rebuild the school that had recently burned down, or whether the children would be bussed to the next district and taxes would be saved. He remembered an incident when his neighbor rose to oppose the idea of building the new school. And what he remembered was the rest of the meeting listening respectfully, hearing the point of view, and then by the way the gentleman lost the vote. The town voted to enact the tax and to borrow 80,000 to build the new school house. So this was a dissenting voice, and rockwell made a series of studies after. He woke up in the morning very early and started sketching and creating images. We have some of his sketches showing rockwell wrestling with the various ways that he could articulate this image, this idea of freedom of speech and what he remembers. And over a series of images, he came with the idea of essentially putting a blackboard in the background, a neutral background so that the speaker would stand tall amongst a group of people who are listening, holding the annual report of the town, the agenda of the meeting, the agenda here of the taxes. And you see eyes looking and ears emphasized because freedom that showed everyone paying respect and proper attention. That is an image of Norman Rockwell in the far his ears and eyes listening to the speech. Freedom of religion is probably he most difficult image that rockwell had to create because how often do people of different religions come together in a place of worship . Separately in their own place and he created composition of of different favorites coming together all praying it a god. N each according to the dictates on conscience. Rockwell om want painted during thanksgiving. Family ere are two members, his mother and his wife, the rest are neighbors and rock rbg create an sed to American Family celebrating thanksgiving. Really a single againy of of still master work life. Water glasses not the most lavish lavish, rare sparse except the turkey and figures saints much like the would be gathered in a renaissance painting on each and the Center Gathering you together with i would suggest kind of a divine light through the win did hes and beautifully painted that show White White White against a a spotless showing nd un mess kwrmessy table and s coming together to celebrate hanksgiving in good cheer and family unity. Ur concept with preserving something worth fighting for. From fear, we have a theer and father tucking in two children. Bomb news, r has references, probably the bombings of london, the ii. Don blitz of world war if you look around the edges of and peace, you see he doll, a reference possibly to a body of war and the light back, to me references kind of orange glow of the fire the back. So it is one of the more subtle images of shows the horror overseas, that references shows the threat to the future generations. The paintings of rockwell were americans ges that saw. Show you low me i can that americans would have come learn about rockwells four the oms through images in saturday evening post from february through april every rockwells ne of mages appeared with on a full age spread with an essay by a writer of their interpretation freedom m of speech or of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. Saturday evening post circulated to millions of americans would have een these up majors much like americans would see images on television and talked about it. Ome of the essays are quite poignant. The freedom of worship one of abstract ifficult pockets has a magnificent essay durant of i will passages. Ple man differs from animal two ways he laughs and prays. Mark of a man he beats his head against the rhythm of life us infinite weakness of hard nd mind and lift his to a hidden presence and finds a repbndering of hope. Ends if our sons and brothers their toil his by and suffering they can carry to mankind boon and stimulus of an ordered liberty. Achievement the trumps of all the alexander, caesar and into e that ll b poehling. Purpose and to whom we others regetting that we cannot beside them dedicate the remainder of our lives. So, americans saw these, read the following month, april of 1943, there was bond drive. So these images having been as sketches ially by the office of war maembraced by came bond driver and second bond he rive and the concept was americans would invest, pay money for a bond that would years. N a number of it was about 18 and in 10 years 25. Uld pay you back but the idea was that they come the nation to together quickly to raise the equipfor munitions and to the nations soldiers appropriately. Hollywood as most famous government help the sell war bonds. Coleman all onald part of 50 people helping the war effort. Second war bond driver the four freedoms were adopted images of the bond drive and there was a possibility campaign 17 down cities starting in washington, d. C. And department e to the store in d. C. And they showed printed in ers and of millions duplicate sets the four freedoms. Up majors ur smaller that were given to you when you bought the bonds. You u bought a bond received up majors of the four freedoms to put up in your home. Large posters would have been isnt around the sent country in positiveses, schools andless buye to rally the nation to war bonds so the dissemination of this image in the spring of 1943 was pervasive and seen as war. Ce of the at that time. Effort at that time. Norman rockwell was trained as an illustrator. Studied in the Art Student League in new york and learned and asics of painting drawing the aluminum human body with the able to recreate in drawings or paintings as as rately and realistically a camera might. His ugh rockwell said in autobiography he styles looked world as a little too messy and not as ideal as he to be and it therefore he made it more ideal in his paintings. Became extraordinarily well known through his art first boy scouts and then working for magazines the the the e being great one being the saturday evening post. Artist who appeared on millions of post people would see his art, far were he an artist that was making paintings for a or a museum. N andas a very popular artist chronicled American Life from teens through the 20s, 30s, 40s up until the 1970s. Here this, business begins is in the early 1930s. Heres an image here from the saturday evening post confer of returning cover returning vacation a year after 1929. Tock market crash of so while times were bad there was a market downturn it was not the depression yet. So rockwell could look at life hearted way. Te this is the sraubgs from which you the vacation from which a vacation. The family returned home hastily packed uitcase, the camera, shoes un ti tied. Warn out with signs about a vacation. It is something Many Americans to, could see a little bit of their own lives in he cover of the saturday evening post which made the magazine such a welcoming we the people would see something they would relate to at the time. Picture ison to this nother painting of a vacation from 1938, but it is quite different. Vacations, exotic ports of call, paris, mountains, vacations and if you six years nto the depression a salesperson with no customers. Successful. This was the vacation in america 1930s as the ravages of the depression, spreading t was throughout the nation. Meant something quite different. Remember the painting i showed the f the gentleman around lunch counter that were listening to the radio . Following that painting rockwell painted this. Listening to the radio by himself in his home hear the news trying to hear the news. Personal imagere than the gentlemen at the lunch counter. I will show you why. First, look at his hand trying it dial in and you can imagine particular radio trying to get it clear so he can hear the messages. Can see the u the map of europe, direction with the that he understands the military and before taking forces to be y taken and above him eisenhower mcarthur. , three sons of the man is you see the clues the like you d realize he is trying to track the progress that his son with making on the war front, each deployed in different areas and in the map behind american flags have been pinned map. The we did only presume they are the locations he believes his sons hiding in. Fighting in. He painting by the way was later this was a saturday picture and later given away to the editor of the eagle in western massachusetts. So what rockwell did is he newspaper on the ground as the Berkshire Eagle to the staff to is friend and staff of the Berkshire Eagle. Another instance where the image photographed, n circulated in magazine form, the theal painting ridding with a artist rockwell given to a friend. Ust at the end as world war ii end d, thanksgiving noon 1945 he made this image of the eturning soldier with his mother for the thanks issue on a chair that is a little too small for his boyhood chair earing civilian shoes but his military uniform peeling potatoes as people remember k. P. And doing it in a joyous way of and it was meant to create an image of something to thankful. Peoples images of Norman Rockwell and the saturday , people think about dont always know the career ntings of his after he left the post. Was bought outst and there was a change in andgement and rockwell left no longer will to conform to the scriptures and he ctations of the post and can work on images that he wanted to do and believe wound magazine, the rival to life magazine that was with photographs. 1964 he made an image that came to be falls called problem we all live with. It was painted in 1963 incident in on an 196 tpeufirst ridges the ittle girl who was brought to an all white school as new orleans was segregated. Of this painting was the 10th anniversary of brown versus the boards of education, the Supreme Court mandated unsegregation in schools and declared straight sufficient in ot the united states. However, it was understood that communities the foot ragging, the delays, lack of care of leadership of communities was delaying the these schools and rockwell, troubled by that, in 10th anniversary looked ba back for there reimagined it nd based on photographs, documents t the time and created his own image that was stark ly differet from the images you would have seen in the photograph. He photograph showed the marshals who had to escort her rom her home to the school bringing her into this all white scho would have seen them all together walking as a group up school. Ps it the in this case he has moved the marshals and only showed them as figures of iing the first rader off to school, ruby bridges. He made her elegantly dressed. R rockwell rant of his a new dress in ke a white for his model for this mage so that she was clean and by the way notice in her book bookshe holds stars on the referenced to the american flag. Originally in the drawings and vile, vile background of way, the re by the tomatoes being thrown graffiti. K. K. K. It is a horrid image and it was at the time when protesters and basically angry at the side of the roads screaming at the girl as going, the poor girl, going to school at the time. So troubled by this in his original image he had side and she couldnt be in the middle twopage was a magazine spread. O the crease of the magazine was in the middle and rockwell decided to move her to the front it, the little girl was leading the marshals as opposed to the marshals leading the girl. Ruby bridges still lives in new orleans, has a foundation and is the Norman Rockwell museum. I should add was white house. To the president obama asked for this painting and had it in the white her come to the white house and she showed the image. Bama i think it is fair to say if you guys i might not be here and we wouldnt be looking at this painting. It month a lot to me. It always it meant a lot to me. But to be Standing Shoulder to with history and in a g history is once lifetime. Wanted to kwell a roduce for the magazine gruesome killing of three students who went to mississippi enroll voters. Here were killed by the klansm klansmen. In his drawings for the image focused on the gore and assailants. In this final image he instead shadows soke them in the really see perpetrate fors of the crime but you saw them as shadows, like ghoul seven and something would be too easy to attribute to one or two individuals. Humanitys evil trying to wipe out good. Rockwell was very conflicted vietnam war. He was troubled by the news that in the 1965, 1966, 1967. Commissioned was at one point was commissioned to do some payments on the decided not to follow through because of his conflict with the war and in through his thoughts he came up with this up major from right to tphknow, recognizing that the people have the obligation and right to understand the purposes for goes to war. Ion as you see the empty chair, the authority. And the people have come, people walks of american ife, young and old, in suits and Norman Rockwell himself to ask. I think it making it plain and not locketing it in something as congress with a microphone or with a person this a phmoree symbolic and aubiquitous right rather than an incident. So, the right to know would have probably been something rockwell have thought about in the freedom. Ould have of as people think of rockwell as family and american the like, as he grew more mature thoughtful, rockwell created a series of paintings and images bringing together diverse people. In this case a study for the russia, the s, united kingdom, united states, but litical figures surrounded by people from the an image of a ghandi figure but people from all brought together in thought and contemplation, desire, that pe the diverse peoples of the world could come together. You see this thing throughout rockwellsas late late career as he does such golden rule that tkwdiversities of religion all saying the con them unto others as you would have them do unto you. American about the middle class world later in live elebrated the diversity of people and diversities and ultures and was someone more a Global Citizen that wae remembe and images aintings and drawings certainly reflect that. Exhibition weve carried that theme forward beyond lifetime. The Rockwell Museum in a anizing the show put out call for artists who wished to reflect upon the theme of America Today. Over 1,000 entries were received jury from around the expertsof art and other selected works by some 40 reflect upon rockwells freedoms and freedom in America Today so the show images that se eople can go by and see modern takes on rockwell. Who lives near the Rockwell Museum, freedom from except the newspaper has i cannot believe. Freedom other images of pointing. Ting, using, information, fake, fake, fake. News. And people gathering their news as they wish from sources they wish. We see images that have been by the artists much greater diversity of subject. People black, white, from , all creeds, es liberty and eech, all National Values with religious figures from around coming together, human rights and eleanor razz. Part of the exhibition that has been extremely popular particularly d younger people who sometimes see expression in the 1940s as sometimes limiting, monolithic and now understanding freedom in america something that is the ly important from perspective one comes from and receiver such y freedom and bestow respect on others. Go through this part of the exhibition and see arious themes of different people and certainly inhibit fors of liberty such as the electronics and surveillance that enters homes. S religious figures. Dalai lama, ghandi, and same all part of the family. Like the n in ideal diverse, e, yet more more inclusive perhaps from the todays artists and viewers. Certainly some images of reminder that a sometimes the nation has fallen. Hort of its ideals and a powerful image of an era religious and cultural intolerance wrapped in flag. The he student body when galleries are most full tends to be here seeing what accountant artists are reflecting upon and perhaps seeing some of their own in these images and identifying themselves amongst various competing positions issues today. O, i found that this has been an exhibition that has brought great diversity to the museum from all walks life throughout the washington, d. C. Community, tourists and our Academic Community f professors, alumni and students and graduate students here at the George Washington university. Im a strand trained art renaissance, 18th, 19th and some 20th century. On the iwo n a book jima monument and knew about the war band drive. Knew rockwells art, i knew skillful he was and his visual it recreate the was extraordinary, as good as artists alive or that ever lived perhaps. Thought it ery was be a little light, fluffy a lull little too americana. Him wrestle see with the serious issues of freedom and he had to get away softer side of American Life as seen in a family evening post rday but looked at the struggles of he nation and perils of the world, he became much more of ous and was an artist much more depth and thought than phmy originally thought in own with the biases i brought rockwell, rockwell from 1960 and 1961 on was a i think, profound thought he looked at the living up ecution or to its values and found it fell and he had the courage to look at segregation in the schools, segregation in housing, also with hope with the united nations, peace corps, religions coming together. He was an artist who reflected i thoughtfulness the american condition and maybe artist a lot of people talk about art being not just an ank but a mirror and mage but a mirror and he was for better or worse a mirror on the american psyche. During ideal rockwell, roosevelt and the four freedoms a traveling exhibit with stops in france, houston, denver september 2020 to january 2021 at the norman ockwell in stockbridge, massachusetts, where it was organized. You can watch this and all other programs istory tv online at cspan. Org history. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] we are outside the r. E. Olds ransportation museum in lands being. Olds started at oldz mobil corporation. Learn more nside to next. Manufacturing it a city is ry