Better than looking at art is to be part of its history and development or, better yet, to have a personal association with it. Since we cannot all be muses, we take the next best thing: being the first to see it. An ongoing exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art offers that opportunity through March 29. A strong personal voice fills the galleries housing porcelain and glazed … [Read more...]
Ford Fine Art’s Suzanne Snider: Bringing Central American modernism to Delray
Suzanne Snider has been running the hidden treasure that is Ford Fine Art gallery long enough to know its best years are still ahead. Delray Beach is not where one would expect to find the most significant collection of Central American modern masters and established artists in the country. But that’s exactly what the gallery houses, according to Snider, who used to be the … [Read more...]
Small shows: Six Picassos at the Norton
Before they were painted, they were loved. Each of the women portrayed by Pablo Picasso in six distinctive works currently on display would like to say she was the love — or lust — of his life. No one knows for sure, but at least now we can do what the artist never could: have them all in the same room. There has been no hair-pulling and no eye-gouging since the exhibition, … [Read more...]
At Boca Museum, a rich retrospective of an overlooked American master
Aside from the surprising change in her painting style and her death at age 111, the most shocking aspect of Theresa Bernstein is that she painted from a hidden place. The fact that the artist was born in Poland, but insisted on being solely American, comes to light more than once throughout an exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art that celebrates her long artistic … [Read more...]
At Four Arts: Wild about more than just Henri
When a time is no longer being captured, but simply being copied, that is the signal for someone to grab it and portray it like nobody else. A group of rebel artists living in Paris heard that call in 1880. A new wind of creativity stormed the bohemian city for the next 30 years, stripping its walls of anything resembling old academic practices in order to hang fresh artistic … [Read more...]
Norton’s 500 years of prints a true master’s course
To the large crowd that attended his recent talk while still holding their magnifying glasses, Norton Museum curator Jerry Dobrick said the museum was incredibly lucky. And he was not talking about a large monetary donation. Dobrick, the museum’s curatorial associate for European art, was referring to the 43 works by old and modern masters that make up Master Prints: Dürer to … [Read more...]
Four brave new voices in photography at the Norton
Rami Maymon. Miriam Böhm. Delphine Fawundu. Renato Osoy. The names might not mean much to us now, but they are the future of photography. This is one future that is looking bright, but first it needs to survive a little competition. It was great news when, earlier this year, the Norton Museum announced it was bringing back the Rudin Prize award, and the exhibition that … [Read more...]
Don’t talk; dig: The Panama Canal at 100, at the Flagler
What 8-year construction project involved only American laborers and linked two oceans through the narrow spine of Central America at a cost of $200 million? The answer is: none. Sorry. Trick question. If you were thinking the Panama Canal, you were half right. This costly engineering masterpiece took twice that amount of money and 10 years to complete. It required more than … [Read more...]
2014-15 arts preview: The season in Palm Beach County art
Whether you are an artist or an admirer of beauty, you should thank the lucky stars (and planets) for aligning once again to bring Palm Beach County robust art by local and international artists. It is not the most exciting lineup ever, but as usual diversity is the big hero saving us from the villain: predictability. That there will be something for everyone is always good … [Read more...]
At the Norton, a summery look at iconic toys
If there was a heaven for toys, it probably would look and feel like the Norton Museum of Art’s new exhibition. This is what a toy gets for enduring decades and co-existing with digital era’s sharp apps: a show of its own at a major local museum. If such heaven existed, then Matchbox cars, Hot Wheels cars and Barbie dolls arrived at it last week, with the opening of Wheels & … [Read more...]