Desert Caballeros Western Museum Hosts World Premiere Exhibition
The Kenneth M. Freeman (1935 – 2008) Legacy Collection Comes Home to Arizona for the Arizona Centennial Exhibition
“Artist at Work: The Masterworks of Kenneth M. Freeman” museum exhibition consists of over 60 oil paintings, sculptures, illustrations and a compelling centerpiece of a replica of Ken's art studio complete with studio artifacts. Subject matter includes working cowboys and cowgirls, portraits of rodeo heroes, Native American elders and children, mountain men, and Western landscapes. “Artist at Work” is a travelling retrospective that provides a tribute to an internationally recognized Western artist, illustrator and cowboy.
HD Video News Release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvI8sYVz7XA features DCWM Executive Director W.James Burns and Curator Bonnie Adams of the Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy
Artist At Work - Digital Museum Catalogue of the Exhibition: http://issuu.com/cisco_socialmedia_pr/docs/artistatworkcat
(Wickenburg, AZ – August 8, 2011) The Desert Caballeros Western Museum plans to Cowboy Up! with pride and celebrate Arizona’s Centennial with a major art exhibition. The Wickenburg museum hosts the world premiere of Artist at Work: The Masterworks of Kenneth M. Freeman. Opening to the public on October 21, 2011, and continuing through March 4, 2012, details are available at the website: www.westernmuseum.org. The primary focus of the exhibit is on the cowboy and ranching life, so important to the history of this region, as well as Native American subject matter. Artist Kenneth M. Freeman often used the Wickenburg area, ranchers, rodeo participants and stock for many of his models in the featured paintings.
A studio replica of Freeman’s own workspace serves as the centerpiece of this exhibition, providing intimate insight to the artist’s creative process. The unfinished Impending Decision IV, the final piece Freeman was painting at the time of his passing, will be on display to clearly illustrate Freeman’s master painting technique. Earning scholarships to study at the American Academy of Art, Freeman studied techniques of the European old masters. Capturing the rich heritage of the many varied peoples he encountered in photographs, Freeman brought the personalities of these models to life.
Bonnie Adams, Freeman Legacy curator, talks about selecting the pieces for the exhibit.
“We brought out more than a hundred paintings from the archives of the Freeman Legacy Collection,” Adams stated. “James Burns, the executive director of the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, found that the toughest task was to narrow the selection down to the very best pieces for the exhibit to fit in the space allowed. We both decided that these masterworks would anchor the exhibition: Hard Day’s Night, Bronc Buster, Psychin’ Up, Power of the Basket, Cookie Lady, Un Momento Sorrento, Taos Shaman and No Easy Way.”
“We plan to include key items from Ken’s original studio in the replica, such as his easel and palette,” Burns explains. “The fact that the Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy has preserved the artist’s work space and contents provides an incredible educational resource.”
Adams explains the decision for the exhibition title, Artist at Work.
“When you came to the studio, Ken was always in his studio – every day he painted. He was always a working artist. It was what he loved to do. Ken always said he painted portraits,” Adam’s said. “Whether they were of cows or cowboys; his subjects were always a study in the story behind the faces he painted.”
Burns notes that, although an exhibit titled Artist At Work was displayed before at the Booth Western Art Museum in Georgia, the exhibition at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum is new and more robust.
“I was able to persuade Ms. Adams to blend the Freeman’s two Legacy traveling exhibitions including more master works than are in either “Portraits of the West” or the first “Artist At Work.” I believe we have the best of both exhibits and an outstanding world premiere.”
Artist at Work: The Masterworks of Kenneth M. Freeman is a travelling retrospective that provides a tribute to an internationally recognized Western artist, illustrator and cowboy.
And for artist Kenneth M. Freeman, the cowboy hat and boots was not a gimmick or shtick. Neither was his Arizona attitude. Ken Freeman may have grown up in a traditional Jewish home in Chicago, Illinois but make no mistake … he was a cowboy.
A Kiowa poet once remarked that the American West is a place that has to be seen to be believed, and it may have to be believed in order to be seen. Freeman had the talent to draw, paint and sculpt the West as he had seen and experienced it. His unique combination of light and depth of color, together with rich cultural heritage, has left us with a body of work that connect with the soul and spirit of the American West.
“Ken’s old masters’ technique was very time consuming but the outcome is extraordinary. It is the only way to achieve the depth of colors and warm layers of content that will pass the test of time. This painting technique will last for hundreds of years,” said Edward Holmes, president of Western Artists of America whose organization presented Freeman with a Lifetime Achievement Award, hereafter named the Freeman Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Ken painted each piece three times. First he sketched on the canvas or board with pencil and then did a full value, burnt umber painting where he worked out all the details. When the burnt umber was dry, he laid down the color,” added Adams. “This was the style of the old masters, and this style had members of the press dub Ken Freeman as The Rembrandt of the Rodeo.”
Ken was a graduate of the American Academy of Art in Chicago (www.aaart.edu). He began taking classes at the American Academy of Art in the summer of 1950 at the age of 15. He won a scholarship to the school from the Latham Foundation. He studied with renowned artist Haddon Sundblom … Referred to as the Father of Illustration.
“He was a man you could never forget. His enthusiasm for life and art was contagious. Of all the artists from the Academy I've met over the years, Ken really stood out as one of a kind,” said Aron Gagliardo of the American Academy of Art.
Recent Kenneth M. Freeman Awards of Excellence:
- Lifetime Achievement Award from Western Artists of America (Jan. 2010)
- Western Heritage Award from Parada del Sol Rodeo (March 2010)
- Cowboy Spirit Award from the National Festival of the West (March 2010)
- Special Award from the World’s Oldest Rodeo – Prescott, AZ (July 2010)
- Lifetime Achievement Award from Arizona Art Alliance (December 2010)
About Kenneth M. Freeman
Works of Kenneth M. Freeman are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum, Library of Congress, American Art Academy, and Booth Museum as well as distinguished private collections. Accolades include winning competitions at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Hubbard Museum of Art, the Illinois State Fair, the Salmagundi Show in New York City, the Union League Club of Chicago, being chosen five times as artist for the Parada Del Sol Rodeo in Scottsdale, AZ and having a painting selected for the 1988 Prescott Centennial Rodeo. He was an illustrator for authors like Louis L’Amour.
Ken was known affectionately as “Rembrandt of the Rodeo” by members of the press. First Lady Barbara Bush, impressed with Ken Freeman’s southwestern art, invited him to show at the Smithsonian Institute in conjunction with the Native American Museum Extravaganza. Ken also had a one man show in 2007 in Milan, Italy at Fondazione Metropolitan. www.KennethMFreeman.com
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