The Constitution Through the Lens of Visual Arts Masterpieces
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THE CONSTITUTION THROUGH THE LENS OF VISUAL ARTS MASTERPIECES CLE Credit: 1.0 Thursday, May 12, 2016 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Cascade Ballroom B Kentucky International Convention Center Louisville, Kentucky A NOTE CONCERNING THE PROGRAM MATERIALS The materials included in this Kentucky Bar Association Continuing Legal Education handbook are intended to provide current and accurate information about the subject matter covered. No representation or warranty is made concerning the application of the legal or other principles discussed by the instructors to any specific fact situation, nor is any prediction made concerning how any particular judge or jury will interpret or apply such principles. The proper interpretation or application of the principles discussed is a matter for the considered judgment of the individual legal practitioner. The faculty and staff of this Kentucky Bar Association CLE program disclaim liability therefore. Attorneys using these materials, or information otherwise conveyed during the program, in dealing with a specific legal matter have a duty to research original and current sources of authority. Printed by: Evolution Creative Solutions 7107 Shona Drive Cincinnati, Ohio 45237 Kentucky Bar Association TABLE OF CONTENTS The Presenter .................................................................................................................. i Chapter One: Opening .................................................................................................... 3 Chapter Two: Introduction to Visual Arts ......................................................................... 7 Chapter Three: The Visual Arts Lens and the Constitution ............................................ 15 Chapter Four: Visual Storyteller of the Constitution: Norman Rockwell......................... 19 Chapter Five: To Establish Justice: Brown vs. Board of Education ............................... 26 Chapter Six: We the People: Robert Duncanson's Abolitionism ................................... 29 Chapter Seven: Equal Protection and the Idea of a Maturing Democracy ..................... 34 Chapter Eight: Equality: Mary Cassatt and the Modern Woman ................................... 37 Chapter Nine: Health Care: The Power to Tax and Artful Judging ................................. 41 Chapter Ten: Making Presidents and Presidency: George Grey Barnard's Lincoln and Joaquin Sorolla's Taft ............................................ 45 Chapter Eleven: When Time Has Upset Many Fighting Faiths: World War I, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and John Singer Sargent .................................................... 52 Chapter Twelve: We the People: Farney's Song and Native Americans ....................... 57 Chapter Thirteen: The Thirteenth Juror: American Constitutionalism and the Jury's Act .............................................................. 61 Chapter Fourteen: Painting a Digital Age Constitution: Privacy and Property ................ 65 Chapter Fifteen: Works of Art on the Art of Work: Winold Reiss .................................... 69 Chapter Sixteen: The Rich Mosaic: Religion and Creative Constitutionalism ................ 71 Chapter Seventeen: Closing: The Constitution and Creativity ...................................... 75 Credits and Bibliography ............................................................................................... 80 Notes: ........................................................................................................................... 82 List of Images and Collections: Image 01: The Constitution, C. F. Payne ......................................................................... 7 Image 02: Architectural Ornament, Louis Sullivan, Art Institute of Chicago .................. 12 Image 03: Christina's World, Andrew Wyeth, Museum of Modern Art ............................ 13 Image 04: Sketch of University of Virginia Rotunda, Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia .................................................................................... 19 Image 05: Freedom from Fear, Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum ............. 21 Image 06: Freedom from Want, Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum ............ 21 Image 07: Freedom of Worship, Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum ........... 21 Image 08: Freedom of Speech, Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum ............ 21 Image 09: The Problem We All Live With, Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum .......................................................................... 24 Image 10: The Right to Know, Norman Rockwell, Norman Rockwell Museum .............. 26 Image 11: View of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington, Kentucky, Robert S. Duncanson, Cincinnati Art Museum ............................................. 33 Image 12: The Bath, Mary Cassatt, Art Institute of Chicago .......................................... 39 Image 13: William Howard Taft, Joaquin Sorolla, The Taft Museum of Art .................... 46 Image 14: Lincoln, George Grey Barnard, Lytle Park, Cincinnati ................................... 50 Image 15: Gassed and Field Sketches for Gassed, John Singer Sargent, Imperial War Museum .................................................................................. 56 Image 16: Song of the Talking Wire, Henry Farney, The Taft Museum of Art ................ 61 Image 17: Jury for the Trial of a Sheepherder for Murder, Ernest L. Blumenschein, The Rockwell Museum, Art About America, Corning, New York ................... 65 Image 18: Cincinnati Murals, Winold Reiss, City of Cincinnati ....................................... 70 THE PRESENTER Bruce I. Petrie, Jr. Graydon Head & Ritchey, LLP 1900 Fifth Third Center 511 Walnut Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513) 629-2717 [email protected] BRUCE I. PETRIE, JR. is a partner in the Cincinnati office of Graydon Head & Ritchey, LLP and concentrates his practice in representing health care organizations, hospitals and physicians, elder care organizations, educational institutions and schools, municipalities, and various private and public sector organizations. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Brown University and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Northwestern Law Review. After law school, Mr. Petrie worked as a law clerk for the Honorable John Grady, United States District Court, Illinois. He is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Petrie is a member of numerous organizations, including the Cincinnati and Ohio Bar Associations, American Health Lawyers Association, Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys, Beverly Stevens Petrie Fund for Arts Education, Cincinnati Art Club, and Oil Painters of America. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees for Ohio River Way and is a shareholder in the Cincinnati Art Museum. i ii PAINTING A MORE PERFECT UNION: THE CONSTITUTION THROUGH THE LENS OF VISUAL ART MASTERPIECES Bruce I. Petrie, Jr. © Bruce I. Petrie, Jr. 2014. No publication, reproduction or transmission in whole or part without permission of author. Reprinted with permission. To my father, Bruce I. Petrie, Sr., my friends and colleagues at Graydon Head, and the legal clients who have shown me the inspirations of lawyering. 1 2 CHAPTER ONE: OPENING I didn't start out in law or art thinking there was any real connection between the two. Just the opposite, painting and law seemed to be in different worlds, one of images the other of words, one of quiet brushstrokes the other of courtrooms and briefs, negotiation and legal argument. But after years of practicing law and painting, connections between the two unexpectedly came into view. It started as an intuition while standing in front of canvases, working through the compositions, planning and thinking. It struck me that the law work I was doing on Monday had common ground with the painting I was doing on Sunday. Once that intuition took hold, I started to keep it in mind as I read law cases and thought about what lawyers and judges do. I read and re-read Supreme Court cases. A picture began to emerge that law and art shared some common ground. This book is an invitation to see American Constitutionalism, that is, the Constitution and decisions of the Supreme Court, in a different way: through the lens of visual art and the lives of some of its greatest makers. The Constitution is a masterpiece of law that shares common ground with masterpieces of visual art. You may not be used to thinking about law and art together. You may, like I used to, see them as worlds apart. I'd like to change that perception. The principles of art and law we will explore here are far from new. They go back thousands of years. But today, the connections between art and law are obscured. The work of lawyers, judges and courts has become increasingly specialized and complex, and public perceptions of this work are mixed. It's time to rediscover the fundamental interdisciplinary connection between the arts and America's most important law. Why is it time? Why should we care whether art and law are linked in root ways? The reason is that the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions make a difference in our lives, and art can be a powerful medium for legal understanding. The Constitution impacts our freedom, our rights, our responsibilities as citizens. The judgments of nine men and women impact our