Heritage Auctions Announces Sponsorship of Norman Rockwell Museum's "Four Freedoms" Tour

Dallas, Texas - Heritage Auctions (HA.com), the largest auction house founded in the United States, announced this week it is has committed to a two-year major sponsorship of the Norman Rockwell Museum’s traveling exhibition Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms. It is the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s iconic 1943 depictions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime defense of humanity’s fundamental human rights.

Considered among the most indelible images in the history of American art, Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Fear and Freedom of Worship will embark on a seven-city tour across the United States and to Normandy, France. The two-year, international exhibition opens May 25 in New York City at the New York Historical Society, with a companion presentation, Reimagining the Four Freedoms, on view concurrently across town at Roosevelt House.

“Sponsoring this groundbreaking, educational exhibition means supporting the ideals that people of all nations deserve universal human rights,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. “Rockwell’s artistic interpretation of these rights sparked a national movement in America and abroad, inspiring generations for the last 75 years” 

Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms includes a range of artwork in addition to Rockwell’s celebrated images of the Four Freedoms. These include paintings, illustrations, prints and more by both Rockwell and a broad range of his contemporaries, from J.C. Leyendecker and Mead Schaeffer to Arthur Szyk, Ben Shahn and Dorothea Lange, among others. The era is brought to life through a number of channels, including historical documents, photographs, videos, interactive digital displays, immersive settings and artifacts. 

“The exhibition will show how Rockwell’s aspirational paintings shifted American attitudes towards engagement in World War II in defense of the free world, and, ultimately, helped to make the case for universal human rights,” said Norman Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt. “In highlighting Rockwell’s and his generation’s response to the call for unity in support of these fundamental freedoms, the exhibition resonates powerfully with our own time.” 

To date, the 2018 exhibition tour comprises The New-York Historical Society, New York City, New York, May 25-Sept. 2, 2018 and The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan, Oct. 13, 2018-Jan. 13, 2019. The exhibition is on display at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., Feb. 9-May 6, 2019, Mémorial de Caen, Normandy, France, June 4-Oct. 27, 2019. It returns to the United States through 2020, beginning at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Dec. 15, 2019-March 22, 2020; and Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in fall 2020.