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...]
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...]
A quieter kind of art on view at Ann Norton’s gardens
Even in the reign of creativity, it is hard to find some breathing space these days. When not politicized or meant as cheap shocks, art production increasingly seems less interested in long-lasting effect and more intent on eliciting a sharp, quick form of anger or brainwash. The reaction lasts long enough to be shared, before quickly disappearing like content on Snapchat. All … [Read more...]
Gaugengigl: Flager exhibit revives interest in forgotten Boston painter
The winter exhibition coming to the Flagler Museum this January is a rescue mission of an obscure classically trained artist with no direct ties to Henry Flagler – although he would have loved the works. Masterfully Human: The Art of Gaugengigl examines the highly evocative body of work of Boston painter and etcher Ignaz Marcel Gaugengigl through 75 pieces that include … [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...]
Four Arts to offer overview of paintings by Winston Churchill
In 1947, Winston Churchill, then age 73, wrote about his dead father appearing to him and the imaginary conversation that unfolded between the two. When his father asks him what he is doing, Churchill answers him he is trying to copy an old portrait of his. Later on, the father inquiries how the son makes a living. “Not, surely, by these,” he says, pointing at several … [Read more...]
Flagler exhibit shows romance, peril of World War I combat in the air
Before it became a battle skill, flying was first a question and a plane was a toy piloted by an eccentric character with lots of free time. World War I changed all of that. When it came knocking and looking for heroes, aviation had to hurry up and grow real fast. The subjects of Flagler Museum’s fall exhibition are no stranger to the spotlight and under no pressure to … [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...]
At the Boca Museum, life in lines as seen by Carlos Luna
Carlos Luna is the kind of artist who gets approval by not needing it in the first place. He speaks frankly, with the same boldness and assertiveness of his lines. But it is what lies beneath them that drives Deep Line Drawings, an exhibit of about 60 recent works on view through Dec. 31 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. They are not harmonious, quiet landscapes one … [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...]