Zilker Elementary Art Class

Zilker Elementary Art Class

Monday, September 12, 2011

Celebrating Freedom Week in Art Class

This week is Celebrate Freedom week in Austin ISD. In art class, we are looking at two American Artists and how they celebrate our country's history and freedom through their artworks.
Childe Hassam was an American of British descent, and he took personal pride in the allegiance of Britain, France and the United States during the First World War. His painting "Allied Day, May 1917" shows the American support for the U.S. entering the war. The scene in the painting depicts flags flying on Fifth Avenue in new York City, and if you look closely, you can see citizens marching in the streets in a Preparedness Parade. Hassam set up his easel on a balcony of a building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Second Street to paint the scene.
Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting "Free Speech" depicts a man standing up to speak about the famous "Four Freedoms" speech that Franklin D. Roosevelt made in his 1941 State of the Union address: Freedom of speech and expression, freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom of worship. Norman Rockwell had served in the military during World War I, and as an artist he wanted to continue to serve his country after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. Rockwell did a series of four paintings about Roosevelt's Four freedoms speech, and all of them were published in "The Saturday Evening Post." These paintings helped galvanize the U.S. to action during the war.

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