Norman Rockwell. It's not his birthday or anything. He just happens to be on my mind. I think as time goes by, Rockwell's work is seen as increasingly sentimental, increasingly old-fashioned. Here's one such example:
 |
| Freedom of Speech, 1943 |
Given the current political climate, I'm afraid this particular sentiment may be getting more old-fashioned by the minute.
This 1976 paean to freedom of the press must be old-fashioned, too. After all, I watched it on TCM!
 |
| 1936-2025 |
Given a respected Australian reporter was slammed down by #47, freedom of speech and freedom of press does seem to rather old fashioned.
ReplyDeleteI loved Redford in Out of Africa.
Andrew, didn't he accuse the reporter of "hurting Australia"? And say he was going to report him to your county's PM? Jeez, the next thing you know he'll say the reporter has cooties.
DeleteThe attack on freedom of speech by Trump and his thugs is the most worrying of all. Once that has gone autocratic dictatorship is the de facto form of government. You are almost there now.
ReplyDeleteDavid, it's as close as we've come since the McCarthy era. In fact, it may have already surpassed it.
DeleteSuch quaint times. Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, we are where we are, believe it or not.
DeleteHe was corny, he never claimed he wasn't. But freedom of speech isn't corny, it's bedrock.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Boud.
DeleteI know one of them Kirk. Sadly not the artist Norman. Though I googled him! RIP Robert.
ReplyDeleteAnanka, I've done two previous posts where Rockwell's name appeared in the "Label" thingee at the bottom of the post. I just now clicked his name, and guess what? You have a comment on one of those posts! So it's not all that sad.
DeleteSad. But what a career, huh?
ReplyDeleteRobert Redford, Lux? He lived a fairly long life, though I wish it could have been longer.
ReplyDeleteHello Kirk, I had always though of artwork and movies like those a trifle hackneyed and jingoistic, but now I realize that people from the first half of the 20th century could see things with a clarity that those of us born later could not really vision or access. Until now.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Jim, as you may know, Freedom of speech was one of FDR's Four Freedoms (the others being freedom of religion, ...from want, ...from fear) values meant to differentiate democracies from totalitarian nations such as Nazi Germany during World War II. The Saturday Evening Post commissioned Norman Rockwell to come up with four illustrations that would, well, illustrate each freedom. As he so often did, Rockwell used everyday people (albeit white everyday people) and everyday situations to get his point across. In Freedom of Speech you see what appears to be a young laborer speaking his mind at a Town Hall meeting while more formally dressed folks look on, suggesting that particular freedom is secure no matter what the speaker's station in life. That's clarity enough for me,
Delete