The Norton Museum Of Art

My sister Susan and I visited the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida yesterday afternoon. I visited this museum once before, and was very impressed with its photography collection, which includes works by Edward Weston, Henri Carter-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Edward Steichen, Nan Golden, and others, but unfortunately, the photography gallery was closed due to the installation of a new exhibit. No matter - there were some photographs in the other galleries, including a Diane Arbus, and the museum itself is a very pleasant place to just wander around, no matter what is on display. The Norton has a number of impressionist paintings in their collection, but we toured the entire museum without seeing any. Until we were leaving, that is, and discovered them displayed in the very first gallery, near the entrance, right off the closed photography gallery. I was no doubt so focused on the blocked entrance to the photography exhibit that I completely ignored the paintings in that first room when we arrived. That collection includes works by Monet, Cezanne, Dega, and Pissarro, by the way. Not bad for a city the size of West Palm Beach.

Like the Denver Art Museum (The DAM), the collection is pretty heavy on contemporary art. Some I liked, and some I didn't. Jackson Pollock's Night Mist was very nice, although both Susan and I were a little confused when we saw Joseph Beuys "Filzanzug" (felt suit) hanging on the wall. Basically, it was a suit of clothes on a hanger. Susan speculated that a visitor must have left it there, no doubt not needing a felt suit in the middle of August in Florida, but it was definitely part of the collection, no doubt paid for with real money. Go figure. I was happy to see that the Norton had several works by Marc Chagall on display, including the one in the photograph on the right, which I liked very much. I don't think I have seen any works by Chagall since visiting the Art Institute, back when I lived in Chicago.

And one of the Norton's most impressive works, in my opinion, is glass artist Dale Chihuly's Persian Sea Life Ceiling, seen in the photograph on the left. I remember being very impressed with Chihuly's work when it was exhibited at the Denver Botanic Gardens back in 2014, but for some reason, I could never remember Chihuly's name. The only name I could come up with was Gilhooley, who was a character played by Lee Marvin in the movie Donovan's Reef, a John Wayne film from the 1960s. But no matter - everyone knew who I was referring to when I would mention the Gilhooley exhibit at the Botanic Gardens, although it does explain why I could never get a job as an art critic.