Four Freedoms, Many Interpretations
February 13, 2019
Alums help develop exhibition on expressions of freedom, from WWII-era Rockwell to today.
By Carly Taylor ’19 | Maryland Today
"In early 1941, when World War II had engulfed much of Europe, Africa and Asia, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought to inspire an anxious nation. In his State of the Union address to Congress, he outlined his vision for a safe world, founded on four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
"The speech didn’t resonate, however, until painter-illustrator Norman Rockwell humanized the four freedoms in a series of wholesome images featured in the hugely popular Saturday Evening Post, including a family gathered around a Thanksgiving table and parents tucking their children into bed. They toured the nation, raising $133 million for war bonds.
"Seventy-five years later, University of Maryland alumni James J. Kimble Ph.D. ‘01 and Margit Hotchkiss ’85 have helped put a modern spin on the series to reflect the changing perspectives of freedom. They and colleagues at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., developed the traveling exhibition, “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt, and the Four Freedoms,” which opens today at the George Washington University Museum and runs until April 29."
Read the complete story in Maryland Today
Images via Maryland Today: (Left to right) Norman Rockwell, 1943. Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, Freedom to Worship; (below) "United We Stand" by Benny Bing, 2017; "Twenty-First Century Four Freedoms" by Curt Belshe, 2017
(Four Freedoms illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post (c)SEPS, Curtis Licensing. Norman Rockwell Museum Collections; "United We Stand" and "Twenty-First Century Four Freedoms" from the exhibition "Re-imagining the Four Freedoms")