Sun 1/10 @ 3PM
Painter Norman Rockwell, whose career spanned more than six decades from just before World War II until his death in 1978, was probably best known for the covers he drew for Saturday evening Post for 50 years. They lovingly depicted such scenes of Americana as a family at Thanksgiving dinner, a little boy getting a shot at a doctor’s office, and a young teen couple sharing a post-prom date at a soda fountain, which many viewers read as sentimental.
But his work always had a serious edge, even before he painted his famous “The Problem We All Live With” in 1963, showing six-year-old African-American girl Ruby Bridges (now a 66-year-old civil rights activist) being escorted to school by U.S. Marshals with racial slurs and smashed tomatoes on the wall behind her. For instance, that iconic Thanksgiving scene illustrated one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “four freedoms” — freedom from want.
Learn more about this artist who packed a punch in a velvet glove when the Fairmount Center for the Arts presents Felicia Zavarella Stadelman as part of their “Pull Back the Curtain” Speaker Series. She’ll talk about his life and work, which were more complicated that hey might appear at first glance. It’s one of “Through the Eyes of the Artist” biography lectures, which aim to reveal the basis on artists’ work in the stories of their lives.
To make a reservation for this free Zoom program, call 440- 338-3171, email or go to fairmountcenter.org/special-events/.
Novelty, OH 44072