Feeling a little hopeless about the American political experiment?
A cure for what ails you might be to wander through “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms” at The Henry Ford, which focuses on the four Saturday Evening Post covers illustrating those freedoms that Norman Rockwell painted during World War II. But move quickly: the show, organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, closes Jan. 13.
While this sprawling exhibition targets Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” — freedom of speech and worship, and freedom from want and fear — it reaches well beyond those canvases to illustrate how President Roosevelt’s administration recruited American artists in the war effort, as well as raising challenging questions about how this nation defined freedom then and now.
