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Page 1 of 7 Norton Museum of ArtFocus On: New PhotographyMarch 5th through June 5th, 2005 The exhibition highlights 29 contemporary photographs acquired during the past five years all on view for the first time. Oliver Boberg, Sarah Jones, Nikki S. Lee, Loretta Lux, Mark Mann, María Martinez-Cañas and Shizuka Yokomizo are just a few of the artists featured. Among the recurring themes that emerge from this selection are portraiture, domestic narratives and experimental practices. Whether realized in color or in black and white, derived from existing, constructed or digitally enhanced realities, or conceived as a single image or as part of a larger series each of the 29 works in this exhibition provides insight into contemporary artists’ fascination with the photographic process as a means of making their visions real. Many of the works have been purchased with funds generated by the Museum’s Photography Committee and by its members. Several of the artists featured in Focus on: New Photography will have work included in Maximum Exposure, the Norton’s inaugural Photography Auction on Saturday, April 9, 2005.  The Norton Museum of Art has long been committed to photography, and the collection is now attracting international attention. In 1998, the Baroness Jeane von Oppenheim donated 670 photographs to the Museum, including works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, August Sander, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and Bernd and Hilla Becher, making the Norton’s photography collection one of the preeminent collections in the South. The Museum’s collection of photographs represents nearly all of the medium’s major developments and innovations, including the Pictorialism of Heinrich Kühn, Baron Adolph de Meyer and Clarence H. White, the social realism of Walker Evans and Lewis Hine, the abstract modernism of Man Ray and Ralston Crawford, and the bold contemporary imagery of William Eggleston, Ralph Gibson, Candida Höfer, David Levinthal, Vik Muniz, Catherine Chalmers and Zhang Huan. The Stieglitz Circle at the Phillips Collection: In the American Grain February 19th through May 8th, 2005 The Stieglitz Circle at The Phillips Collection: In The American Grain is drawn from the Phillips Collection’s permanent holdings, and includes more than forty paintings by American Modernists Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as photographs by Alfred Stieglitz. On view at the Norton Museum of Art from February 19 through May 8, 2005, This stunning exhibition explores not only the works of these innovative modern artists, but also their relationships with gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and collector Duncan Phillips. The members of “Stieglitz’s Circle” were frequently inspired by America’s distinctive landscape, and depicted its endless variety in bold forms and vivid colors. Also on view during this exhibition will be complementary paintings from the Norton’s permanent collection, two each by Dove and O’Keeffe, and one each by Hartley and Marin. Elizabeth Hutton Turner, Senior Curator of Art, The Phillips Collection will give an exhibition lecture on February 20 at 3:00 p.m. The Norton’s Curator of American Art, Jonathan Stuhlman, comments, “This is not only a wonderful opportunity to see important and beautiful paintings by some of America’s most innovative artists, but also a chance to learn about the fascinating and complex relationships that emerged between Duncan Phillips, an insightful collector, Alfred Stieglitz, a tireless advocate for modern American art, and Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe, four groundbreaking American artists.” Avant-garde gallerist and photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) originally made a name for himself by introducing the work of modern European artists such as Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Rodin to American audiences at his gallery 291. However, by the time he had opened his second gallery, An American Place, in December 1925, he was firmly devoted to exhibiting and promoting American art. At the heart of his circle were Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Washington, D.C.-based collector Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), like Stieglitz, showed an early interest in modern European art, forming a collection that by 1923 included Renoir’s masterpiece The Boating Party, for which he paid a then-record sum of $125,000.  At this point, however, Phillips was beginning to take a serious interest in American art as well. In fact, one year before he purchased the Renoir, he wrote that it was a “cardinal principle to make the gallery as American as possible, favoring native work whenever it is of really superior quality, as our painting unquestionably is.” In 1926, Phillips defined his outlook by stating that, “The power to ‘see beautifully’ is almost all there is worth bothering about in art.”It was inevitable that Phillips and Stieglitz would meet. The event occurred shortly after the opening of Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery in late 1925. Just a few months later, Phillips had purchased his first paintings from Stieglitz, including works by Dove, Marin, and O’Keeffe. Over the next two decades (until Stieglitz’s death in 1946), Phillips continued to acquire and exhibit work by the artists that Stieglitz supported, sharing his passion and steadfast belief that the work of American artists was equally as valid as that of their European counterparts. Phillips collected the artists in this exhibition in depth, grouping their work into “units” that represented each artist’s mature body of work. In keeping with Phillips’ tradition, this exhibition is laid out in “units,” each of which functions as a miniature retrospective for Dove, Hartley, Marin, O’Keeffe, and even Stieglitz himself. Norton Museum of Art 1451 S. Olive Ave. West Palm Beach, FL 33401 561.832.5196 |
