PROGRAM

Art critic Deborah Solomon discussed her long-awaited book, American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell. Solomon, the biographer of Joseph Cornell and Jackson Pollock, has written the authoritative life of the painter who, as the star illustrator of The Saturday Evening Post for nearly half a century, provided twentieth-century America with a defining image of itself. Solomon discussed how Rockwell’s work came to symbolize the ideals of American democracy and how Rockwell himself became an unofficial “artist in chief.”

Roosevelt House is home to an original set of prints of Rockwell’s famous “Four Freedoms,” published in 1943 in The Saturday Evening Post and created in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s statement, in his 1941 State of the Union address, of the four essential human rights: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom From Want and Freedom From Fear. In her talk, Ms. Solomon will pay special attention to Rockwell’s work on the Four Freedoms, and to the relationship between Rockwell, a Republican, and President Franklin Roosevelt.

Watch this special event with Ms. Solomon below that highlights the “Four Freedoms,” the significant aspect of Rockwell’s legacy that is one of the distinctive — and emblematic — features of Roosevelt House today.

Deborah Solomon  

Deborah Solomon is the author of two previous biographies of American artists: Jackson Pollock: A Biography and Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell. She has written about art and culture for many publications, and her weekly interview column, “Questions For,” appeared in The New York Times Magazine from 2003 to 2011. She is the art critic for WNYC, and she lives in New York with her family.





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Deborah Solomon: “American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell” | Posted on October 28th, 2013 | Book Discussions, Public Programs