Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur, Freedom from Want, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers! This scene forms part of a photo series by American artists Hank Willis Thomas and Emily Shur reimagining Norman Rockwell’s seminal paintings, Four Freedoms. The original works were a visual interpretation of President Franklin D Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, detailing his vision for a postwar America founded on four basic human freedoms (speech, worship, want and fear). Rockwell represented each of these on canvas, featuring sedate, all-white characters—a problem Thomas and Shur set out to rectify. This image reenvisions “Freedom from Want”, replacing Rockwell’s holiday diners with a more accurately multicultural representation of contemporary America. See more artworks that perfectly subvert modern America in our recent Best Of feature.