The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts is launching an internationally touring exhibition based on Rockwell’s interpretation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms.” The tour also will feature new immersive virtual reality in an effort to woo the next generation.
Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” were inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address.
“President Roosevelt offered a poignant vision of liberty when he argued the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear should be accepted as fundamental human rights,” Norton Moffatt says.
Laurie Norton Moffatt, Director and CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum, says the government turned the famed covers of The Saturday Evening Post into posters to raise money during World War II.
“It tells the dramatic and inspiring story of four paintings that helped to change world history,” Moffatt says.
The exhibition, announced Wednesday in New York City, will include Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” paintings as well as more than 100 other works including paintings, drawings, prints and photography from Rockwell and his contemporaries.
Norton Moffatt says the exhibition is not just a historical tribute to these ideals, but also about engaging in a new dialogue about freedom today.
“These programs aim to elicit contemporary concepts of freedom, among them the call for artists’ re-interpretation of freedom; symposia with influential thought leaders and exhibition catalogue with essays by leading thinkers today, a national education curricula on freedom and our nation’s founding principles,” Norton Moffatt says.
And something more, too, to get the next generation of Rockwell fans to enjoy the exhibition.
“Digital virtual reality experiences, educationally focused, that will actually step into the paintings involving a creative collaboration with the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. And global social media conversations on freedom in partnership with our venue partners and the United Nations,” Norton Moffatt says.
Norton Moffatt says the virtual reality portion of the exhibition will recreate experiences that will help young people understand the World War II-era in America.
Stephanie Plunkett, the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, says there will also be a comprehensive audio visual tour to guide people through each of the exhibits.
“People will be able to learn more about the art and the concepts presented in the exhibition by using their iPads and personal devices. There will be some really wonderful audio visual installations, some film. So I think it will be a great multimedia experience. We will even have some soundscapes,” Plunkett says.
The soundscapes will change from each of the five thematic sections of the exhibition, featuring composers like Aaron Copland and more recent artists who were inspired by the ideals of freedom.
“Bringing the exhibition to the present day, this final section of the exhibition presents a reimagining the Four Freedoms, a juried installation of works in all mediums by contemporary artists, offering new perspectives on the Four Freedoms and on the notion of freedom today,” Plunkett says.
Thirty artworks will be juried, though their selection is not public yet.
The exhibition “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt and the Four Freedoms” will open at the New York Historical Society in Spring 2018. It will then travel to five additional venues including the Caen in Normandy, France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Landings.
This will be the first time these paintings will be seen in Europe.
Other stops on the tour include the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It will culminate at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge.
