Norman Rockwell’s Freedoms Today
In 1943, Norman Rockwell did a set of four freedoms illustrative paintings based on Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 speech. The paintings were published in the Saturday Evening Post in subsequent editions along with an article on each freedom by contemporary authors.
The paintings done during the second world war era were illustrating the lives and values of the blue-collar American people and families. However, the paintings were criticized in some circles at the time for being too sweet and not addressing real social issues.
In 2016, a For Freedoms artists collective painted their version of the four freedoms to reflect the current reality of American Society. They are displayed in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
The original paintings implied that the American society at the time consisted of only all white Anglo-Saxon Americans.
What I think is ironic is that the new version of the paintings also now seems to be too sweet just like the original set of paintings and subject to the same criticism of not reflecting the current social reality. Since 2000, rising far right-wing nationalism has created a backlash against the pluralistic liberal nature of American society. This however does not mean a swing back to the harmonious white monolithic family and society. That view of society was incomplete at the least and now an unrealistic desire for those who have been at the short end of the powerful currents induced by changes in the environment, technology, and interconnected global commerce. But we don’t have answers to their critic. Will there then be a new set of Freedom paintings that also addresses their critic? Let’s hope so!
