Summertime in Florida is not a cultural wasteland; opportunities to view a variety of fine art exhibitions are an easy drive from Vero. The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach is one such venue. Located a little over 90 minutes from Vero Beach, the Norton prides itself on being the largest museum in the state.
The museum was founded in 1941 by Ralph Hubbard Norton (1875–1953), an industrialist who retired as president of Acme Steel in Chicago in 1939. Shortly after moving permanently to West Palm Beach, Norton and his wife Elizabeth lost no time in establishing the Norton Gallery and School of Art. The gallery building, designed in a late art deco style by Palm Beach architect Marion Sims Wyeth, was filled with the Nortons’ collection of European, American and Chinese art. That collection formed the nucleus of the museum’s current holdings of over 7,000 objects.
In 2001 the Norton Museum of Art underwent a 45,000-square-foot expansion that added 14 new galleries. In 2013 the museum announced its intention to expand once again. Drawn up by the architectural firm of Norman Foster, the new plan will nearly double its gallery space and add a grand entry hall, auditorium and event space as well as a new museum shop and a new restaurant. A time frame for construction has not yet been announced, so don’t worry about confronting a major construction project during this summer’s visit.
The first thing a visitor sees is the lobby’s site-specific artwork “Faux Real” by New York-based collage artist Mickalene Thomas. Commissioned by the Norton, the mural-sized work is based on a panoramic photo collage by Thomas of Florida’s palm-fringed beaches and lily-strewn waterways. Stylistically the mural owes much to the collages of Romare Bearden. Another influence on Thomas was her artist’s residency at Monet’s home and garden in Giverny, France. The installation is on view through Aug. 31.
The Norton’s first-floor galleries are dedicated to the museum’s permanent collection of American paintings and sculpture. Here are portrait paintings by early American artists Ralph Earl and Gilbert Stuart, followed in quick succession by 20th century works by members of the Ashcan School realists such as Robert Henri, George Luks, John Sloan and Everett Shinn.
Norton avidly collected the art of his time, and works by American modernists such as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe and John Marin are well-represented. Notable works on view by mid-century abstractionists include a 1943 canvas by Robert Motherwell titled “Personage” and Jackson Pollock’s “Night Mist” of 1945. The latter, painted two years before the beginning of Pollock’s “drip” paintings, is a predominantly black, gray and white painting that shows the artist leaving his consciously composed forms for a freer, more impulsive style of paint application.
In these galleries are also a fine Edward Hopper painting and the wonderful portrait “Ruby Green Singing” by James Chapin. The focal point of Hopper’s “August in the City” is a forlorn-looking Victorian statue that gazes out at the city’s pavements from its velvet-draped pedestal in a well-to-do house. Ruby Green, the subject of Chapin’s painting, was an African American contralto who graduated from Julliard School of Music in New York City. Chapin shows her in a pale pink sheath dress with her head tilted back, her lips parted and her serene gaze cast heavenward.
A new must-see addition to the collection is Wayne Thibaud’s luscious, bunker-like “Neapolitan Pie” painting from 1963. It and two small figural paintings by Richard Diebenkorn (also on display) were donated to the Norton last year by former board trustee Anne Smith.
One of the glories of the museum is a jewel box of a room built especially for Dale Chihuly’s “Persian Ceiling,” a colorful collection of 693 glass forms that rest in riotous profusion on a clear glass ceiling. The room is a relaxing place to rest on your tour of the museum; its chairs and benches provide a comfortable vantage from which to view the overhead work. Also in this gallery, a curved glass wall frames a view of the outdoors through a curtain of dripping water.
The Norton’s sky-lit three-story atrium is encircled by a cantilevered staircase that delivers visitors to the Chinese and European galleries on the second and third floors; for those who prefer it, an elevator is close at hand.
Begun with 125 objects from Ralph Hubbard Norton’s collection, the museum’s holdings of Chinese artifacts is not extensive but it is choice. Here you will see a 3,200-year-old bronze Shang wine vessel whose verdigris-covered body is a stylized dragon. There are furnishings for the well-appointed tomb, including a pair of terracotta Tang Dynasty polo players, depicted bearing down on the ball on the backs of their galloping ponies. And there are platters of glossy clay Ming Dynasty comestibles designed to satiate hungry ghosts – and prevent them from haunting the living. Export porcelain, inlaid screens, lacquered furniture and carved jade objects will give ardent Sinophiles more than they can absorb in one visit.
The top floor displays European paintings and sculpture from 1450 to 1950. The emphasis is on old masters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, Ferdinand Bol, Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck; 19th century names include Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin.
The Norton’s schedule of touring exhibitions alone is worth a trip. The current show, “Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York’s Rivers, 1900-1940” originated at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, where it was exhibited last fall. The Norton Museum is the only other institution to display the show– but hurry, the last day to see it is June 22.
“Industrial Sublime” features paintings by 20th century masters such as George Bellows, Robert Henri, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, Georgia O’Keeffe and John Sloan, as well as exquisite works by lesser lights, including Ralston Crawford, Leon Kroll and Jonas Lie.
The more than 60 works on display are on loan from a notable array of institutions, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Phillips Collection, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The title of the exhibition makes reference to the exalted view of nature as painted by the Hudson River School, whose artists largely ignored the industrialization of the landscape; and 20th century artists, both Realists and Modernists, who sought to come to terms with the changing way of life along New York’s waterfront.
If small children are included in your travel plans, the Norton has just the show for them. Opening on June 19 and running through October 26, “Wheels and Heels: The Big Noise Around Little Toys “will take a playful look at two iconic toys: the miniature car, epitomized by Matchbox and Hot Wheels brands, and the “teenage doll,” the most famous of which is Barbie. In addition to the toys the show will feature design drawings, accessories, play sets, vintage advertisements and television commercials as well as an interactive playroom.
The Norton Museum of Art is located at 1451 South Olive Avenue in West Palm Beach. It is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost is $12, for adults, and $5 for students; there is no charge for children aged 12 and under. Until Sept. 4, Florida residents can enter the museum for free on Thursdays (proof of residency is required). Free admission is available every day through Labor Day for active military personnel and their families.