exhibitions | news
Artist-in-Residence:
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
For the month of March, 2025, I had the rare and prestigious honor of being an Artist-in-Residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Artist-in-Residence program was launched in 1992 to help reshape the institution and recapture the vitality that was present during Isabella’s lifetime. Artists are invited to live, think, and work at the museum.
I was given full access to the holdings and the archives, along with support from the curators, conservators, and staff. It’s an amazing experience to express an interest in a particular artist and their work, and immediately have examples shown to me that are on display, as well as additional work retrieved from the museum’s archives, along with detailed biographical information and even the artist’s personal correspondence. While program participants are not required to produce anything, I found both the change from my usual schedule, and being surrounded by the incredible works on display, as well as the physical beauty of the Isabella Stewart Gardner’s home and museum, inspiring.
In my present paintings I take a direct approach to the canvas, and I do not make preliminary sketches. But having 24-hour access to the museum, including the astonishing beauty of the courtyard’s architecture, artwork and plantings, I was inspired to return to a different style of work from much earlier in my artistic education and career. I found myself doing pencil sketches and gouache paintings on paper in an attempt to capture the vitality of the environment I was so fortunate to be living in.
I wish to thank the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the incredible people who work there, for an amazing experience. It was truly a retreat from the world, where I could think about my next series of work, while I lived in a place where the most impressive paintings in the world are housed.
I am still trying to figure out exactly how this experience will affect my painting and how I see the world of art. Sometimes, it takes a long time to examine and digest an experience, and to understand what the experience did to you. What is clear, is that it has already had an effect and will continue to do so and that I am so thankful for the opportunity. ~Robert Freeman
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Robert Freeman At the Movies!
American Fiction, the highly acclaimed new film, features Robert Freeman’s paintings. The comedy-drama was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the American Film Institute and has received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and two Golden Globe nominations.
For more details on how the film’s Production Designer and Set Decorator felt Robert Freeman’s paintings were instrumental in creating a realistic atmosphere, and setting the mood for the film’s characters, see our “At the Movies” email. There you will find a link to the behind-the-scenes documentary, “Inside the Set | American Fiction”, which showcases the paintings used in the film.
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You can see more details about ongoing exhibitions by viewing our recent email update. Please subscribe to my mailing list to be included in future invitations and news.
~Robert Freeman