March 22, 2013

Finest Hour 155, Summer 2012

Page 35

“The Art of Sir Winston Churchill,” April 13th – July 29th

By Max Edward Hertwig

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In Appleton, Wisconsin, the Trout Museum Churchill art exhibition took a unique approach, displaying not only some of Churchill’s paintings, but paintings and other works of art with him as the subject. The exhibit was made possible thanks to collaboration among Allen Packwood and the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge; the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri; the Oscar Nemon Estate; and private collections.

The exhibition presented several paintings by Winston Churchill as well as a images depicting the former Prime Minister accomplished by his favorite sculptor, Oscar Nemon. The exhibit included artwork by three of Churchill’s family members—his granddaughter Edwina Sandys, his daughter Sarah and his nephew John Spencer-Churchill— which explore and expand upon the ideas and passions to which he devoted his long and remarkable life.

“Churchill was the subject of many depictions in the media and the Arts,” the Museum explained. “As with politicians and luminaries today, the character of these images varied wildly; some commemorative medallions and statues portray the Prime Minister in the radiant light of a Roman Caesar, while disparaging political cartoons show him as a stodgy, cigar-chomping curmudgeon.

“Croatian-born sculptor Oscar Nemon (1906–1985) enjoyed an artistic relationship of a different stripe with Winston Churchill. In 1951, the Churchills met Nemon at the Hotel La Mamounia in Marrakech. There, Nemon created a small terracotta bust of the great man, which Clementine Churchill praised for its remarkable accuracy: ‘It represents to me my husband as I see him and as I think of him.’ Nemon became the world’s best-known and most prolific Churchill sculptor.”

On the second floor of the Appleton building was a section of the exhibition entitled, “The Greatest Generation of Pastime Painters.” This collection featured works by Wisconsinite artists and veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War.