Click Here To Visit The Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy Official Website
“Ken painted each work three times. First he sketched on the canvas or board with pencil and then did a full value single color, burnt umber, painting where he worked out all the details. When the burnt umber was dry, he laid down the color,” explained Bonnie Adams, curator of the Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy Collection. “This was the style of the old masters and members of the press dubbed Ken Freeman The Rembrandt of the Rodeo.”
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.
Recent Kenneth M. Freeman Awards of Excellence:
- Lifetime Achievement Award from Western Artists of America
- Western Heritage Award from Parada del Sol
- Cowboy Spirit Award from the National Festival of the West
- Special Award from the World’s Oldest Rodeo – Prescott, AZ
Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy Museum Exhibition Schedule:
These two collections are traveling retrospectives of the late Kenneth M. Freeman (1935 - 2008) who had a prolific career as both an illustrator and fine artist, primarily portraying the American West. Artist at Work and Portraits of the West presents a cross-section of Freeman’s lifetime body of work and range of mediums.
- Artist at Work: The Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy
Museum exhibition of 50 works by Kenneth M. Freeman
The Booth Western Art Museum, Cartersville, GA
January 2010 - May 2010
The Booth Museum is a Smithsonian affiliate museum
- Portraits of the West - The Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy
Premiere exhibition of 65 works by Kenneth M. Freeman
The Phippen Museum, Prescott, AZ
June 26 - October 24, 2010 - www.PhippenArtMuseum.org
Ken Freeman was an illustrator for authors like Louis L’Amour and Will James, among others.
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.
Ken was affectionately called The Rembrandt of the Rodeo by members of the press. The painting technique Ken learned at the American Art Academy interpreted the personalities that characterize our most common perceptions of the West -- the cowboys and cowgirls, Native American elders and children, the Buffalo Soldiers, mountain men, and, of course, the rodeo heroes.
An interview with Kenneth M. Freeman
