This exhibition, featuring eighteen photographs by Maggie Meiners (b. 1972) from her Revisiting Rockwell series, reinterprets and updates Norman Rockwell’s nostalgic, iconic images of mid-century American life. Based in Winnetka, Illinois, Meiners was inspired by a visit in 2010 with her family to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. There she noticed that Rockwell’s engaging paintings “were really sparking conversations among visitors.” Meiners decided to recreate some of Rockwell’s classic paintings with the hope that “these images will be a platform for people to use for discussion, to expand dialogue while connecting people on all levels.”
Let's spark a conversation

The process of creating art is a restorative and healing experience for Maggie Meiners, addressing personal issues of mental health and addiction.

Meiners’ works are complemented in this show by three original Norman Rockwell paintings, as well as other archival documents. Central to this exhibition are Meiners’ reinterpretations of Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Fear, and Freedom from Want, which are seen here published in the Saturday Evening Post. These classic paintings have also been recreated in photographs by For Freedoms co-founder Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur.

Look closely at these detailed photographs and compare them with Rockwell’s originals from the 1940s and 1950s. What has changed in the world since then? What has stayed the same? Think about the artists’ perspectives on civic engagement, immigration, gun control, religion, gender, racism, and the impact of technology, and talk with the people you came here with about what we can do to protect our fragile freedoms.

Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator

Alison Van Denend, Assistant Curator

Since its founding in 1914, the Museum has actively collected historic, modern, and contemporary art, growing its collection to more than 15,000 works. This exhibition highlights new acquisitions of American and Native American art entered into the collection since 2017, thanks to generous donations and purchases.

Ranging from the early 20th century to the present, this exhibition includes New York-based modern art dealer and photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s The Steerage (1907/1915), Norman Lewis’s lyrical, untitled Abstract Expressionist painting (1951), and Native photographer Cara Romero’s Water Memory (2015). Also on view are early 20th century works by pioneering modernists A.B. Frost, Jr. and Morton Livingston Schamberg. Photographs of ancient petroglyphs in New Mexico by Salvatore Mancini are complemented by Alaska Native artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs’s shadow boxes containing a moose jaw and polar bear fur. Other works focus on social issues and concerns, such as Kyle Meyer’s mixed media portrait of a gay man in Swaziland and Jersey City-based artist Woolpunk’s digital and fiber artwork Blue Carts & Barbed Wired (2018).

Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator