As museums mark America’s 250th birthday, a 1975 print portfolio commissioned by Kent Cigarettes (Lorillard Tobacco Company) has taken on new relevance. Titled Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, It includes 12 prints by artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Audrey Flack, Ed Ruscha, Marisol, Fritz Scholder, and Robert Indiana. The portfolio, gifted to museums in all 50 states, has been presented in over a dozen museums across the country this year, from Alaska to Alabama, from Michigan to Connecticut.
“It really allows for a critique of the American project, but is also about opening up conversation,” said Rachel Stratton, the Wadsworth’s Interim Emily Hall Tremaine Assistant Curator for Contemporary Art. “It was an amazing idea – asking the question, ‘What does Independence mean to you?’”
Indiana’s contribution was Liberty ’76, a punchy incisive take of text and stars and stripes, with a dazzling red ‘76 at the center. The print is included in Framing American Democracy: Contemporary Artists Reflect, on view at the Wadsworth until September 13, and also appears in Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience, on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. until September 10.
“In thinking about our role as a national gallery, we really wanted to think about how to acknowledge and commemorate the 250th. We wanted to look at art and the artist point of view, and the role they have played thinking about the country,” said Shelley Langdale, curator and head of modern and contemporary prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Art.
For Indiana, American independence was a complicated topic. “‘They choose to be free, free we choose to be,’ is how I intended the legend of this serigraph to read, with accent on the reaffirmation of that freedom 200 years after its declaration and at the time of greatest peril to our individual liberties suffered over the course of those two centuries,” Indiana said of his print. “I offer this piece not only as a celebration of that anniversary, but also for our recent rescue via those who use the printed word for its maximum effect—an endeavor I believe my work to share.”
“Indiana played a major role in making the case for screenprints,” said Langdale. “Alongside Ed Ruscha, he was incredibly innovative in expanding the word and image. Seeing both words and letters as images broke new ground. They were paying homage to the beginnings of print making with the letter press.”
The portfolio was also commissioned at a key moment. “The 1960s and 70s were the American print renaissance,” said Langdale. “Indiana was an important player in advancing the idea that prints were no less of an art form.”
Liberty ‘76 was placed as the final artwork in the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition, which includes over 100 works from the permanent collection. “What we loved about Robert Indiana’s print is his compelling bold colors and graphic style, with its both forward and backward-looking messages. It felt like the right message to have at the very end of the exhibition. You can’t miss it going out. That message, as with a lot of the language in his prints, it stays with you. They are often short statements, but very bold and you keep thinking about it.”
Liberty ’76 is also on view in:
America 250—Kent Portfolio, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama, until August 29, 2026
America 250: We the People, Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania, until September 7, 2026
Spirit of Independence, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, until October 18, 2026
Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama, September 12–November 22, 2026
The Spirit of Independence: Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, Alaska State Museum, Juneau, until December 31, 2026
Picturing Independence, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, until January 24, 2027
Spirit of '76: The Bicentennial, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, until February 21, 2027
