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PrintKenneth M. Freeman
A Painter's Legacy
Kenneth M. Freeman was a mere 8-year-old boy growing up in a traditional Jewish home in Chicago when he announced his plan to become a great cowboy artist. Now, four years after his death, the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, is celebrating the artist best known for his striking Prescott Frontier Days and Parada del Sol posters in the exhibit Artist at Work: The Masterworks of Kenneth M. Freeman, on display through March 4.
The show features more than 60 oil paintings, sculptures, and illustrations handpicked by James Burns, executive director of the museum, and Bonnie Adams-Freeman, Freeman’s widow and curator of the Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy collection. Although two traveling exhibitions previously displayed Freeman’s artwork, Burns notes, “We chose the best pieces from both shows, so even if people saw one of the previous exhibits, they’re guaranteed to see something new.”
A replica of the artist’s studio serves as the centerpiece. Impending Decision IV, the piece Freeman was painting at the time of his passing, still sits on the easel. “Ken painted each piece three times,” Adams-Freeman explains. “First, he sketched on the canvas with pencil, and then he did a full value, burnt umber painting. When the burnt umber was dry, he laid down the color. This was the style of the old masters, and this style had members of the press dub Ken the Rembrandt of the Rodeo.” Freeman developed this technique at the American Academy of Art, which he began attending at age 15 and where he studied under Haddon Sundblom, the artist behind the charming Santa Claus illustrations of the Coca-Cola Company.
Despite his successful illustration career in Chicago, Freeman became dissatisfied with simply portraying the life he loved. So, at 43, he moved to Arizona. “The cowboy hat and boots were not a gimmick for Ken,” Adams-Freeman asserts. “In addition to painting the cowboys, Indians, and Buffalo Soldiers who represented the America he believed in, Ken himself lived the life.”
