Famous Art for the Pandemic – and Tough Times

Update 03 July 2025: This post was initially published during the 2020/2021 COVID pandemic. As an art history professor, world traveler and lover of great art and art museums, I set out to connect famous art with what was going on in the world around us. First posted on Face Book, it moved into the creation of this website. Click here for additional postings on a Year in the Life of the Pandemic.

“Golden Rule”

Norman Rockwell, American, mosaic (1985)

from earlier illustration (1951) and painting (1961)

I pondered long on an appropriate famous art work that would be pertinent to the horrendous current events of racism and violence in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, this past week. With the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, this verse and artwork came to mind. If we all applied the Golden Rule to our lives, the world would be a much different place. 

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12), is considered the 2^nd Great Commandment in the Bible and has a comparable maxim in most, if not all, world religions. 

Originally an illustration on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post and then a painting in 1961, it was transformed into a huge 8’, half-ton mosaic for the United Nations headquarters in NYC as a gift from the USA on behalf of the First Lady Nancy Reagan. It represents “people of different nationalities standing together with the words inscribed on the surface and . . . reflects humanity—the wondrous mix of nationalities, creeds and colors.” http://un.org Rockwell’s models were local exchange students, visitors and local international residents; they represented a great cosmos of nationalities.

The originals can be viewed at Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA. nrm.org

If you resonated with this post, please let me know with a simple “LIKE” on the space below. Encouraging comments are also welcome. Thanks. ~Cher

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