: An exceptionally large number of art museums seem to be
dedicating newly expanded facilities these days, but few will
outdo the dramatic effect of the new Gail and Melvin Nessel Wing
of the Norton Museum of Art. The expansion, opened to the public
in March, increases the Norton's gallery space by a whopping 75
percent, making it the largest art museum in Florida. In the
months since the opening, attendance has increased by 200
percent, according to museum officials.
The 42,000-square-foot project, which brings the total size of
the museum to 112,500 square feet, provides much needed space in
which to display the Norton's fine and expanding collections of
American, Chinese, European and Contemporary art and photography.
The museum also hosts a series of special exhibitions each year.
The southwest wing features a free-form, cantilevered spiral
staircase, a soaring three-story oval atrium, 14 new galleries,
an elegant enclosed courtyard and a glass ceiling installed by
Dale Chihuly.
Much of the credit for the ambitious expansion goes to museum
director Christina Orr-Cahall, whose vision, drive and
fundraising skills, along with a supportive and generous board of
trustees, made the large capital campaign a success. Orr-Cahall
recently reported that 75 percent of the goal of $35 million
(including endowment enhancement) has been raised. The two-year
building project, she announced proudly, is "on time and on
budget."
The new wing was designed by Chad Floyd of Centerbrook Architects
and Planners of Centerbrook, Conn. His firm was already
responsible for a $30 million, 77,500-square-foot expansion and
renovation of the Norton that was completed in 1997. Floyd also
designed the much-admired Kreible Gallery at the Florence
Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Conn.
Currently on view (through August 24) is a highly entertaining
exhibition, "The Human Comedy: Portraits by Red Grooms." The 75
paintings, sculptures and works on paper demonstrate the sense of
humor and fertile imagination of the artist in colorful, animated
likenesses of Mae Wet, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis Presley, Pablo
Picasso, Salvador Dali, Jackson Pollack and others, as well as
members of his own family.
The Nessel Wing consists of three levels of galleries housing
portions of the Norton's permanent collection. Four galleries on
the first level display contemporary art and photography, such as
images by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, Man
Ray, August Sander and Edward Steichen.
The second level exhibits the museum's impressive Chinese art
collection. Highlights include a Seventh Century "Colossal Head
of a Buddha" and a Shang dynasty, Twelfth-Eleventh Century BC,
"Ritual Wine Pouring Vessel (Guang)."
On the third level, five galleries are devoted to selections from
the Norton's trove of European art before 1870. Here one finds
works ranging from Peter Paul Rubens and Lucas Cranach the Elder
to Gustave Courbet, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Centerpieces are two enormous oils: a 90- by 62-inch Florentine
masterwork, "Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Jude, Simon,
Zelotes and Young John the Baptist," 1586, by Giovanni Maria
Butteri, and a Lucas Giordano altarpiece, "The Immaculate
Conception," 1657, measuring 787/8 by 591/4 inches.
The Norton's Main Building is now freed up to exhibit European
art after 1870, American art and special shows. The heart of
Ralph Norton's original collection, post-1870 European works, is
arranged thematically in four galleries. Among the standouts are
Claude Monet's evocative "The Moreno Gardens at Bordighera,"
1884, and Paul Gauguin's idiosyncratic "Christ in the Garden of
Olives," 1869.
An entire wall features an impressive selection of Cubist still
lifes, including "Le Journal," 1916, by Juan Gris, "La Guitare,"
1917, by Pablo Picasso, and "Still Life on Red Tablecloth" by
Georges Braque. Other painters represented in the European
display: Bonnard, Cassatt, Cézanne, Chagall, Dufy, Klee, Leger,
Matisse, Miro, Modigliani, Pissarro, Renoir and Roualt.
Sculptural highlights include Constantin Brancusi's sleek "Mlle
Pogany II," 1925, and Jacques Lipchitz's "Rescue II," 1947,
created after the artist moved to the United States. Other top
sculptors represented are Archipenko, Degas, Moore and Rodin.
Five galleries are devoted to a comprehensive selection of
American artworks, representing a virtual "Who's Who" of our next
important Nineteenth and Twentieth Century painters. Among the
earliest paintings on view are canvases by Homer and Inness, and
an atmospheric Thomas Moran oil, "Florida Scene," circa 1878, set
around Fort George, near the mouth of the St John's River. An
early Twentieth Century highlight is Childe Hassam's brilliant
and colorful "Gloucester Harbor," 1908.
There are strong paintings by artists linked to the Ashcan
School, including Bellows, Henri, Luks, Shinn and Sloan. American
Modernists are particularly well represented, with works by
Demuth ("After All"), Dove ("Power Plant II"), Hartley, Marin,
O'Keeffe and Prendergast,
Works of more recent vintage include oils and watercolors by such
important figures as Avery, Lawrence, Louis ("Autumnal"),
Motherwell and Noland. Jackson Pollack's "Night Mist," 1945, is a
sizable transitional work created when he was moving from Cubist
figuration to abstract images.
Andy Warhol's familiar "Flowers," 1964, an acrylic silkscreen on
canvas, is one of many versions on this subject produced by the
artist and his associates.
Also in the collection is a watercolor of a Florida beach by
20-year-old Andrew Wyeth, "Pirate Country," 1937, created by the
artist, who did not visit the state until two years later, from
his imagination. It reflects Wyeth's deft watercolor touch.
The American collection also contains a number of good pieces of
sculpture by Calder, de Creeft ("Alice"), Hanson, MacMonnies and
Manship.
The Norton has come a long way in its little over six-decade
history. The museum was launched by industrialist Ralph Norton
and his first wife, Elizabeth, who assembled a considerable
collection of paintings and sculpture in Chicago. Many were
bought from living artists whom the Nortons visited.
When they retired to West Palm Beach, they decided to share their
trove with the public, building the Norton Gallery and School of
Art that opened in 1941. The spare Art Deco structure was
designed by Marion Syms Wyeth.
The collection then numbered 500 works; today there are more than
ten times that figure in the Norton's permanent holdings. Growth
of the size of the collection and increases in the museum's
educational programs prompted the 1997 expansion and this year's
wing.
With its handsome new facilities and augmented gallery space, the
Norton has become an even more significant Florida cultural
attraction. As the opening exhibitions demonstrate, special shows
and displays from the museum's rich permanent collection will
appeal to even the most sophisticated and experienced visitor.
On July 5, a summer exhibition will open, "An American
Celebration: Recent Gifts to the Permanent Collection" that will
feature works by Frederick Frieseke, Abbott Fuller Graves, Robert
Henri, Rockwell Kent, Louis Ritman and John Sloan.
Available in the museum shop are catalogs with essays and color
reproductions of major works from the Norton's American
collection (293 pages) and European collection (241 pages)
available for $35 each, soft cover.
The Norton Museum of Art is at 1451 South Olive Avenue. For
information, 561-832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.
