At 85, Norton Museum Looks Ahead To Showing New Art

By Scott Simmons

This year, the Norton Museum of Art celebrated its 85th anniversary, and it recently hosted “Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” a critically acclaimed exhibition that drew more than 100,000 visitors and received international news coverage.

But rather than looking back, the Norton is looking ahead to creating new ways to educate and inspire the community with exhibitions, lectures, films, performances and community days.

As always, art comes first.

Fifteen years ago, the Norton made a commitment to showcase art by women, offering its Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) series. Two shows in that series are now on view, “Danielle Mckinney: Shelter” and “Recognition of Art by Women: In Retrospect.”

“The Recognition of Art by Women series is central to the Norton’s mission,” said Ghislain d’Humières, the museum’s Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO. “Each exhibition offers an opportunity to showcase the work of exceptional women artists and to highlight their lasting impact on the field. Danielle Mckinney’s exhibition continues this legacy, reflecting the power and diversity of artistic voices that define the RAW program.”

In a world in which works by women artists figured in only 14.9 percent of exhibitions at 31 prominent U.S. museums between 2008 and 2020, the Norton included works by women in 44 percent of its shows. Over the last five years, that trajectory has accelerated, with women artists featured in 57 percent of all Norton exhibitions.

Curated by J. Rachel Gustafson, chief curatorial officer at the Norton, “Danielle Mckinney: Shelter” showcases works that center on solitary female figures within interior settings, offering glimpses into moments of private contemplation, respite or ease.

“Mckinney’s paintings unfold like moments suspended in time,” Gustafson said. “They invite viewers to consider the emotional and spiritual dimensions of solitude, and how stillness itself can become a site of imagination and strength. Her work captures an interior world that feels both deeply personal and profoundly human.”

The exhibition continues through Oct. 4.

The companion exhibition, “In Retrospect,” curated by Arden Sherman, the Norton’s Glenn W. and Cornelia T. Bailey Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, traces the breadth of practices that the RAW series has championed over the past iterations.

The nine featured artists are British painter Jenny Saville (2011), American painter Sylvia Plimack Mangold (2012), British sculptor Phyllida Barlow (2013), Swedish sculptor Krista Kristalova (2014), Nigerian painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby (2016), Austrian painter Svenja Deininger (2017), American artist Nina Chanel Abney (2019), Colombian visual artist María Berrío (2021) and Santa Clara Pueblo artist Rose B. Simpson (2024).

The exhibition continues through Sept. 27.

These shows are joined by an array of other exhibitions on display this summer at the Norton, including:

• Artists at Work — Through June 21. Through paintings, sculptures, photographs and more, this installation reveals a sliver of the who, where and how behind the art. Artists’ portrayals of themselves and others in the act of artmaking accompany depictions of dynamic studios, while examples of artists’ preparatory works illustrate their creative processes.
• That’s Entertainment: Japanese Prints and the Art of Leisure — Through July 5. This exhibition presents 31 Japanese woodblock prints by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864) and other leading artists of the Edo period (1615-1868) and focuses on portraits of celebrated Kabuki actors from major productions staged in Edo (present-day Tokyo) theaters during the 19th century.
• 60 Seconds: Polaroids from the Collection — Through Aug. 16. This exhibit celebrates the photography’s signature immediacy, tracing how artists have embraced Polaroids, or instant film, for their ability to produce a unique image in mere moments.
• Galloping Steed: Celebrating the Year of the Horse in Chinese Paintings — Through Aug. 23. This exhibition brings together works by Xu Beihong (1895-1953), one of the most celebrated artists of early 20th-century China, alongside rare paintings by Louis Antoine de Poirot (1735-1813), a French Jesuit artist who served at the court of the Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735-1796). “Galloping Steed” is part of a multiyear exhibition series developed by the Norton Museum of Art in partnership with the Dongguan Lou Collection.
• Portrait Mode: Self-reflections from Past, Present and Future — Art by students on display through Aug. 16.
• Cursed Images: Pictures Out of Context — May 9 through Nov. 1. This exhibition features 20th-century everyday, amateur snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Collection, one of the largest privately held archives of anonymous photographs in the United States. It highlights photographs whose subjects or object relationships evoke a subtle, inexplicable unease.
• Art & Independence: America at 250 — July 4 through Dec. 6. Works from the collection that celebrate the U.S. semiquincentennial.
• Florida Roots: Ralph Coburn — July 25 through Jan. 3. This exploration explores the work of Ralph Coburn (1923-2018), who spent most of his winters in Miami Beach and was influenced by its Art Deco architecture.
• Visible Fiction: Photography and Artifice — Sept. 19 through Feb. 21. An exhibition that explores the theatricality of photography.

The Norton also hosts Art After Dark from 5 to 10 p.m. on Fridays, with admission that’s free for members; $10 for adults and seniors; and $5 for students. First Friday of the month is Jazz Friday. Tours are 5 and 7 p.m. Open Studio art workshops are 6 to 9 p.m. Artist tours are at 8 p.m. the third Friday of the month. Meanwhile, check the calendars each month for the Jazz Brunch hosted in the restaurant.

The Norton Museum of Art is located at 1450 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. Tickets are $18 for adults; $15 for seniors; $5 for students; and free for active military and veterans with ID, Florida educators with ID, and free Saturday admission for Palm Beach County residents from Memorial Day to Labor Day. To learn more, call (561) 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.

Norton By The Numbers
2024-25 Season

121,000+ total museum visitors
1,300+ docent and curator-led public tours
470+ diverse public programs and events
29,000+ free admissions
17 original and traveling special exhibitions
100+ corporate, community and civic partners
118,500+ visitors to headlining special exhibitions
160+ new artworks added to the collection
3 artists-in-residence
8,750+ artworks in the museum collection
567 artworks on loan from other museums and collections