WEST PALM BEACH — Hope Alswang, who has led the Norton Museum of Art since April 2010, will retire in March after it reopens following its massive expansion and renovation by the eminent British architect Norman Foster. Alswang, who led a $100 million capital campaign called The New Norton, has overseen an expansion of the institution’s collections, receiving donations of … [Read more...]
Summer season preview: In the PBC galleries
Who says we can’t have a tan and culture too? Contrary to popular opinion, art offerings in Palm Beach County don’t end with the summer. They actually go hand in hand. As temperatures soar, museums and galleries open their doors to welcome locals and tourists and any bikini body escaping from the sun. If the upcoming shows – featuring tapestries, paintings, photography and … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 20-22
Film: With such a benign title as A Bag of Marbles, you might not suspect that the film attached to it is a danger-laced Holocaust tale of two young Jewish boys, sent off by themselves by their French parents – a barber and a violinist – to cross the country to relative freedom in Nice, eluding the occupying Nazis. With tough-love brutality, the boys’ father beats into them … [Read more...]
At Norton: Art patron Whitney had gift of her own
Who should Meryl Streep play next? The Norton Museum of Art’s latest exhibition could be the answer. It might seem at first the story of a poor little rich girl finally getting what she wanted or a study on the wonders money can do to procure recognition and fame. But it is not what it looks like. Unlike her New York City neighbor Florence Foster Jenkins, Gertrude … [Read more...]
Small-scale works at Norton, Boca give mixed results
Two local museums are closing the year and welcoming the new one with an old question: does size matter? Small is in, at least at the Norton Museum of Art, which currently has on view a series of miniature paintings and bronze sculptures adorning the walls and rooms of dollhouses. This is no kids’ play, though. The artworks are by Julian Schnabel, Michele Zalopany and Cy … [Read more...]
‘Requiems for dying things’: Artist Guariglia chronicles man’s inhumanity to Earth
The digital technology explosion has turned everyone into a photographer, and the mushrooming of social media means the world is awash in an infinity of images. That’s why the photographer and artist Justin Brice Guariglia wanted to do more to than simply document the effect of man’s activities on the Earth, and climate change in particular, than simply present the kinds of … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in Palm Beach County art
Art selfies have arrived! And they are welcome to stay, so long as we are mindful of the artworks nearby. Just because cultural institutions are thinking outside-the-box, embracing new technologies and millennial-inspired ideas doesn’t mean the golden rule stopped applying: Look, don’t touch. This is not photography’s year. Then again, Earth Works: Mapping the Anthropocene, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 6-8
Art: If there’s a more important art exhibit in the area than Justin Brice Guariglia’s Earth Works: Mapping the Anthropocene, now at the Norton, we’d be hard-pressed to tell you what it is. Guariglia is a photographer who is accredited to NASA, which in 2015 and 2016 investigated the shrinking glaciers of Greenland. Guariglia turned his photos of what he saw into artworks that, … [Read more...]
Photos: France old and new, and fresh insight with Polaroids
Those of us who missed this year’s Bastille Day fireworks celebration at the Eiffel Tower, had a couple of options: looping Charlez Aznavour songs, watching Alain Delon films or seeing Norton Museum’s French Connections. Nothing wrong with the first two, but the third option can’t be found on YouTube. The bite-size exhibit is drawn from the museum’s photography … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 14-16
Art: Allons, enfants, to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach on Saturday for a celebration of all things French (for Bastille Day, which is today). Beginning at noon Saturday and running until 5 p.m., the free festival offers French-language instruction from Natacha Koblova of the Multilingual Language and Cultural Society, classic French film (The Red Balloon), music … [Read more...]