The Norton Simon Museum is an
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily con ...
located in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds.
Overview
The Norton Simon collections include:
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an
painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
s,
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
s, and
tapestries
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...
;
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
n sculptures, paintings, and
woodblock prints
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is crea ...
. Outside sculptures surround the museum, with notable
Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
sculptures near its entrance and other sculptures along
Colorado Boulevard and in a landscape setting around a large pond.
The museum contains the Norton Simon Theater which shows film programs daily, and hosts lectures, symposia, and dance and musical performances year-round. The museum is located on Colorado Boulevard along the route of the
Tournament of Roses
The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Mon ...
's
Rose Parade
The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Monday, January 2 if N ...
, where its distinctive, brown tile exterior can be seen in the background of television broadcasts.
History
![Norton Simon Lobby](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Norton_Simon_Lobby.JPG)
After receiving approximately 400 German Expressionist pieces from collector
Galka Scheyer
Galka Scheyer (born Emilie Esther Scheyer; 15 April 1889, Braunschweig – 13 December 1945, Los Angeles) was a German-American painter, art dealer, art collector, and teacher. She was the founder of the "Blue Four," an artists' group that consist ...
in 1953,
the Pasadena Art Institute changed its name to the
Pasadena Art Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds.
Overview
The Norton ...
in 1954 and occupied the Chinoiserie-style "The
Grace Nicholson
Grace Nicholson (December 31, 1877 – August 31, 1948) was an American art collector and art dealer, specializing in Native American and Chinese handicrafts. The space she originally designed for her shop is now home to the USC Pacific Asia M ...
Treasure House of Oriental Art" building (now the
Pacific Asia Museum
USC Pacific Asia Museum is an Asian art museum located at 46 N. Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California, United States.
The museum was founded in 1971 by the Pacificulture Foundation, which purchased "The Grace Nicholson Treasure House of Orienta ...
) on North Los Robles Avenue until 1970. The museum filled a void, being the only modern art museum between
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and
La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
in California at the time. It was renowned for progressive art exhibits and supported the work of local contemporary artists such as
Helen Lundeberg
Helen Lundeberg (1908–1999) was a Southern Californian painter. Along with her husband Lorser Feitelson, she is credited with establishing the Post-Surrealism, Post-Surrealist movement. Her artistic style changed over the course of her career, ...
,
John McLaughlin John or Jon McLaughlin may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* John McLaughlin (musician) (born 1942), English jazz fusion guitarist, member of Mahavishnu Orchestra
* Jon McLaughlin (musician) (born 1982), American singer-songwriter
* John McLaug ...
, and
Sam Francis
Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker.
Early life
Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California, . In 1962, curator
Walter Hopps
Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...
arrived from the Ferus gallery, organizing
an early Pop art show in 1962 and a
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
retrospective in 1963, as well as solo shows of the work of
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany.
Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, Constructivism (art), constructivism, surrealism ...
and
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmm ...
.
Hopps later drew up a short list of California architects for a new museum building, including
Richard Neutra,
Charles Eames,
John Lautner
John Edward Lautner (16 July 1911 – 24 October 1994) was an American architect. Following an apprenticeship in the mid-1930s with the Taliesin Fellowship led by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner opened his own practice in 1938, where he worked for th ...
,
Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood (April 22, 1922 – May 30, 1992) was an influential Los Angeles-based modernist architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. Although untrained as an architect, Ellwood fashioned a persona and career ...
, and
Thornton Ladd.
Hopps insisted on a local architect because he expected a high level of interaction throughout the design process.
A new Pasadena Art Museum building was completed in 1969, designed by Pasadena architects Thornton Ladd and
John Kelsey of the firm Ladd & Kelsey. General contractor selected to build the museum was
Del E. Webb Corporation. The distinctive and modern curvilinear exterior facade is faced in 115,000 glazed tiles, in varying rich brown tones with an undulating surface, made by renowned ceramic artisan
Edith Heath. Hopps resigned before the museum opened.
In the early 1970s, due to an ambitious schedule of exhibits and the new building project, the museum began to experience serious financial hardships. By that time industrialist
Norton Simon
Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907 – June 2, 1993) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in America. At the time of his death, he had amassed a net worth of nearly US$10 billion.
...
, who had risen to become one of the pre-eminent art collectors in the world during the 1960s, was searching for a permanent location for his growing collection of over 4,000 objects. He was first approached for financial assistance in 1971 by trustees of the museum. In 1974, the museum and Simon came to an agreement. According to the agreed five-year plan, Simon took over an $850,000 loan on the building and other financial obligations, including a $1 million accumulated operating deficit, in return for using 75% of the gallery space for his collection. The remainder was used to display the Pasadena museum's contemporary collection. A new 10-member board of trustees was formed, consisting of four members from Simon's group, three from the Pasadena museum board and three public members nominated by Simon. Simon also became responsible for the collection and building projects; in return the museum was renamed the Norton Simon Museum and renovated at a reported cost of more than $3 million. The detailed history of that process was told by former director and art critic John Coplans (who later became an artist) in ''Artforum''. This move, widely criticized by the local community as it represented the closing of the only contemporary art museum between San Francisco and La Jolla, led indirectly to the founding of the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...
in 1979, a project largely driven by Norton Simon's sister
Marcia Weisman
Marcia may refer to:
People
* Marcia (given name)
*James Marcia, Canadian psychologist
*Stefano Marcia (born 1993), South African Olympic sailor
Other uses
* ''Marcia'' (Beccafumi), a c. 1519 painting by Domenico Beccafumi
* ''Marcia'' (bivalve ...
.
Simon died in 1993, and the actress
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned over five decades, she was nominated ...
, his widow and chairwoman of the board, made corrective, conciliatory moves that have repositioned the museum and its two collections.
In 1995, the museum began a major $5 million renovation with the architect
Frank Gehry, a longtime trustee of the museum.
The redesign resulted in a procession of medium-size, more intimate galleries with raised ceilings and improved lighting, increased rotating exhibition space, an entire floor devoted to Asian art, and restored access to the gardens. The gardens were redesigned by
Power and Associates to house the 20th-century sculpture collection in an engaging setting. The new Norton Simon Theater was the final element of the renovation, designed by Gensler & Associates, and is used for lectures, film, dance performances and concerts.
Collections
The Norton Simon Museum, which comprises more than 11,000 objects, contains a significant permanent collection which is highly regarded internationally. The museum itself does not own the works it displays; instead, most of the art is on long-term loan from The Norton Simon Foundation and the Norton Simon Art Foundation, which each own different groups of artworks. As of 2014, their public filings placed the combined fair-market value of the artworks at about $2.5 billion.
The museum makes relatively little effort to expand the collection amassed by its founder, but it still receives gifts. However, no more than 800 or 900 of those pieces are on display at any one time. The museum also mounts temporary exhibitions that focus on a particular artist, an art movement or artistic period, or art that was created in a specific region or country.
For more than three decades after it was founded in 1975, the Norton Simon Museum maintained a no-loans policy. In 2007, the board agreed to circulate select works to museums including the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, saying it wanted the museum to become better known. In 2009, it entered into a reciprocal loan agreement with the
Frick Collection in New York City.
Asian art
The museum has a world-renowned collection of art from
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, with examples of this region's sculptural and painting traditions. On display are holdings from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, Nepal, Tibet,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
and
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
, as well as selected works from
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. The collection is particularly rich in art from the Indian subcontinent, including monumental stone sculpture from the
Kushana and
Gupta
Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...
periods, and a remarkable group of
Chola bronzes from southern India. Selections of the museum's
Rajput
Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...
paintings from India, and
thangka
A ''thangka'', variously spelled as ''thangka'', ''tangka'', ''thanka'', or ''tanka'' (; Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा), is a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton, silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, ...
s, or
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
religious paintings, from
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
and
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
are well represented. The significant collection of Japanese
woodblock prints
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is crea ...
includes objects that were formerly in the collection of
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
.
File:'Jina Suparsvanatha' from Karnataka, c. 900, schist, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, ' Jina Suparsvanatha' from Karnataka, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, c. 900
File:'Digambara Yakshi Kushmandini' from Karnataka, India, c. 900, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, 'Digambara Yakshi Kushmandini' from Karnataka, India, c. 900
File:8 Miraculous Events of the Buddha's Life from Myanmar, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, 8 Miraculous Events of the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
's Life from Myanmar, 13th century
File:Altarpiece with multiple Jinas, c. 1500, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, Jain chaubisi
File:Water spout from central Java, 15th century, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, Water spout, central Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
, 15th century
File:'Hindu Goddess' from Nepal, c. 1700, gilt bronze, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, 'Hindu Goddess' from Nepal, c. 1700, gilt bronze
European art: 14th–16th centuries
Masterworks of the
Early Renaissance
Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...
, the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
and
Mannerism make up the museum's extensive collection of 14th- to 16th-century European art. Exquisite works by
Paolo Veneziano
Paolo Veneziano, also Veneziano Paolo or Paolo da Venezia (active by 1333, died after 1358) was a 14th-century painter from Venice, the "founder of the Venetian School" of painting, probably active between about 1321 and 1362. and
Giovanni di Paolo
Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (''c.'' 1403–1482) was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts. He was one of the most important painters of the 15th cent ...
, and an exceptional
Guariento di Arpo
Guariento di Arpo (13101370), sometimes incorrectly referred to as Guerriero, was a 14th-century painter whose career was centered in Padua. The painter is buried in the church of San Bernardino, Padua.
Guariento's major commissions in Padua i ...
altarpiece, anchor the museum's collection of
gold-ground
Gold ground (both a noun and adjective) or gold-ground (adjective) is a term in art history for a style of images with all or most of the background in a solid gold colour. Historically, real gold leaf has normally been used, giving a luxuriou ...
panel paintings.
Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco t ...
,
Botticelli,
Filippino Lippi
Filippino Lippi (April 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance.
Biography
Filippino Lippi was born in Prato, Tusc ...
and
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
are represented by rich oil paintings of religious scenes. Also represented are magnificent examples of such Northern European masters as
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is kno ...
,
Dieric Bouts
Dieric Bouts (born c. 1415 – 6 May 1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter. Bouts may have studied under Rogier van der Weyden, and his work was influenced by van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. He worked in Leuven from 1457 (or possibly earlier) ...
and
Hans Memling
Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...
. The portraits of
Giorgione
Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quali ...
,
Giovanni Bellini and
El Greco reflect the great diversity of subject matter in the collection. Ownership of
Cranach's ''
Adam'' and ''Eve'' is disputed due to their history as Nazi loot.
European art: 17th–18th centuries
![Rembrandt self portrait 1636-38](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Rembrandt_self_portrait_1636-38.jpg)
The museum's early
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
paintings from Italy and Spain are represented by such noted artists as
Guido Reni,
Guercino
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as Guercino, or il Guercino , was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vi ...
,
Murillo and
Zurbarán. The Northern Baroque collection is profoundly expressed in the works of
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...
. The remarkable group of 17th-century Dutch genre, portrait and landscape paintings is crowned with three portraits by
Rembrandt. Capping off the 17th century are Flemish and German still lifes, and religious landscapes by the French masters
Claude Lorrain and
Nicolas Poussin. The French component of the 18th century collection contains paintings by
Watteau
Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised October 10, 1684died July 18, 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, as ...
,
Fragonard and
Boucher, while Italy is represented with capriccios and historic glimpses into the daily life of Rome and Venice with works by
Longhi,
Pannini,
Guardi
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (; 5 October 1712 – 1 January 1793) was an Italian painter, nobleman, and a member of the Venetian School. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of ...
,
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.
Painter of city views or ...
, and
Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an import ...
.
European art: 19th century
![Van Gogh - Der Pfarrgarten in Nuenen im Schnee1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Van_Gogh_-_Der_Pfarrgarten_in_Nuenen_im_Schnee1.jpeg)
The museum's paintings by
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ...
and
Francisco de Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...
mark the beginning of the 19th century and lead to superb examples of mid-century Realism executed by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and ...
and
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
. The museum has the most significant collection of
Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and
Post-Impressionist art in Southern California. Works by
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...
,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir and
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
, who alone is represented by over one hundred works of art, are displayed alongside the vibrant palettes of
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
,
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...
and
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
. Complementing these works are
Auguste Rodin's monumental bronze sculptures, displayed in the museum's front garden. Outstanding paintings by
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, he was a prominent member of the Nabis, making paintings which assembled areas of pure color, and interior sc ...
and
Pierre Bonnard lead to the doorstep of 20th-century Modernism.
Modern art
The museum has an extensive collection of
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
, with seminal works by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Georges Braque,
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
, and
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
on permanent view. The "
Galka Scheyer
Galka Scheyer (born Emilie Esther Scheyer; 15 April 1889, Braunschweig – 13 December 1945, Los Angeles) was a German-American painter, art dealer, art collector, and teacher. She was the founder of the "Blue Four," an artists' group that consist ...
collection of works by the
Blue Four artists" boasts paintings and works on paper by
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
,
Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germa ...
,
Alexei Jawlensky, and
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
. Scheyer, a German art dealer and collector who had represented these artists and settled in L.A. in 1925, left 450 works by the Blue Four and other modern artists (plus an archive of 800 documents) to the Pasadena Art Institute after plans had failed to give them to
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
.
Contemporary art
The collection of Post-War
Contemporary Art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...
, from the Norton Simon Museum's acquisition of the Pasadena Art Museum's building and collections, is noteworthy for its strength in collage, assemblage and sculpture, including works by
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and film-maker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmm ...
,
Robert Rauschenberg,
Louise Nevelson
Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures.
Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast ...
, and
Ed Kienholz
Edward Ralph Kienholz (October 23, 1927 – June 10, 1994) was an American Installation art, installation artist and assemblage (art), assemblage sculpture, sculptor whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he ...
.
Pop Art, and
Minimal Art
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or co ...
are represented by
Roy Lichtenstein,
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
,
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...
, and
Robert Irwin. Californian art from the 1950s through the 1970s is a particular strength, with artwork by
Sam Francis
Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker.
Early life
Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California, ,
Richard Diebenkorn
Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...
,
Jay DeFeo
Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...
,
Ronald Davis
Ronald "Ron" Davis (born 1937) is an American painter whose work is associated with geometric abstraction, abstract illusionism, lyrical abstraction, hard-edge painting, shaped canvas painting, color field painting, and 3D computer graphics ...
,
Larry Bell,
Edward Ruscha
Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...
,
Kenneth Price
Kenneth Price (February 16, 1935February 24, 2012) was an American artist who predominantly created ceramic sculpture. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, before re ...
,
Charles Arnoldi
Charles Arnoldi, also known as Chuck Arnoldi and as Charles Arthur Arnoldi is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born April 10, 1946, in Dayton, Ohio.
While visiting a girlfriend's grandmother in New York, he took the opportun ...
, and
Ed Moses,
Color Field painting and
Lyrical Abstraction
Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting:
''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...
are represented by
Kenneth Noland
Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...
,
Ronnie Landfield
Ronnie Landfield (born January 9, 1947) is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction (related to Postminimalism, Color Field painting, an ...
,
Frank Stella
Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City.
Biography
Frank Stella was born in Ma ...
,
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
, and Kenneth Showell.
Sculpture
Major sculptors of the 19th century and early 20th century, including
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French Sculpture, sculptor, Painting, painter, and printmaking, printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford ...
,
Constantin Brâncuși,
Henry Moore,
Barbara Hepworth, and
Isamu Noguchi
was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and severa ...
, are represented by works in bronze, lead and marble sculptures throughout the galleries and outside the museum, including the Front Garden and Colorado Boulevard lawn, as well as the extensive Sculpture Garden grounds.
Management
The Norton Simon is organized as an operating foundation, devoting its resources to its own public benefit activities. The operating budget is about $6 million.
The museum building, which is owned by the board of trustees, stands on land leased from the City of Pasadena for $1 a year. The 75-year lease runs until 2050. Negotiations in the past included possible moves to San Francisco and
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
, as well as an affiliation with the
J. Paul Getty Trust
The J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, with an estimated endowment of US$7.7 billion in 2020. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations—the Getty Center in the ...
.
Jennifer Jones' Hollywood connections brought members of the film and television community, including
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hol ...
,
Gregory Peck,
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
,
David Geffen,
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American retired network television journalist and author. He first served as the co-anchor of ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of '' ...
, and
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom ''Murphy Brown'' (1988–1998, 2018). She is also kno ...
, to the Norton Simon's museum board.
Gallery
Selected art images of Norton Simon Museum.
File:'Branchini Madonna' by Giovanni di Paolo, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, Giovanni di Paolo
Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (''c.'' 1403–1482) was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts. He was one of the most important painters of the 15th cent ...
, ''Branchini Madonna'', 1427
File:Dieric Bouts - Resurrection.jpg, Dieric Bouts
Dieric Bouts (born c. 1415 – 6 May 1475) was an Early Netherlandish painter. Bouts may have studied under Rogier van der Weyden, and his work was influenced by van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. He worked in Leuven from 1457 (or possibly earlier) ...
, ''Resurrection'', 1455
File:Botticelli Norton 115.jpg, Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...
, ''Madonna and Child with Adoring Angel'', 1468
File:Raphael Madonna Pasadena.jpg, Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
, '' Madonna and Child with the Book,'' 1503
File:Bassano, Flight Into Egypt 1545.jpg, Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco t ...
, ''Flight Into Egypt'', 1545
File:The Holy Women at the Sepulchre by Peter Paul Rubens.jpg, Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...
, ''The Holy Women at the Sepulchre'', 1611
File:Francisco de Zurbarán - Still-life with Lemons, Oranges and Rose - WGA26062.jpg, Francisco de Zurbarán
Francisco de Zurbarán ( , ; baptized 7 November 1598 – 27 August 1664) was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes. Zurbarán gained the nickname "Spanish ...
, '' Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose'', 1633
File:Portrait of a boy by Rembrandt.jpg, Rembrandt, ''Portrait of a Boy,'' 1655
File:St. Jerome in Penitence by Francisco Goya y Lucientes.jpg, Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...
, ''St. Jerome in Penitence'', 1798
File:The Ragpicker 1869 Edouard Manet.jpg, Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
, ''The Ragpicker'', 1869
File:St-John-the-Baptist-Preaching.jpg, alt=Nude man holding is hand out, as if explaining a point., Auguste Rodin, '' St. John the Baptist Preaching'', 1878
File:The Artist%27s garden at Vetheuil by Claude Monet.jpg, Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...
, ''The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil'' 1881
File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Nu couché.jpg, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, ''Reclining Nude'', 1882
File:'Women Ironing' by Edgar Degas, Norton Simon Museum.JPG, Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...
, ''Women Ironing'', 1884
File:Farmhouse and Chestnut Trees at Jas de Bouffan by Paul Cezanne.jpg, Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...
, ''Farmhouse and Chestnut Trees at Jas de Bouffan'', 1885–1887
File:Vincent van Gogh Portrait of a Peasant.jpg, Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
, ''Vieux Paysan'': Patience Escalier, 1888
File:Portrait of the Artist%27s Mother by Vincent van Gogh.jpg, Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
, '' Portrait of the Artist's Mother'', 1888
File:The Mulberry Tree by Vincent van Gogh.jpg, Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
,'' Mulberry Tree,'' 1889
Art repatriation issues
In 2012, the Cambodian government asked the United States to help it recover a 10th-century Khmer sandstone statue from the Norton Simon Museum, saying the work was looted from a Cambodian temple complex during the country's political upheavals in the 1970s. The sculpture in question was owned by the Norton Simon Art Foundation and has been on display since 1980, and although Cambodian authorities have long known it was there, they had not sought its return until recently. In the spring of 2014, the Norton Simon returned the sculpture to the Kingdom of Cambodia.
From 2007 until 2018, the museum was embroiled in a legal dispute over rightful ownership of
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is kno ...
's 1530 paired paintings ''Adam'' and ''Eve''. Marei van Saher filed suit, seeking the return of the paintings and alleging that they were confiscated by the
Nazi's from her father-in-law,
Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch Jewish art dealer. Goudstikker died on board a ship with his family while attempting to flee the Netherlands. After the war, the paintings were recovered by the
Monuments Men
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
and returned to the Dutch government. In the 1960s, the Dutch government transferred them to United States Naval Commander
George Stroganoff-Scherbatoff, who claimed they had previously been stolen from his family in Russia by the Stalinist government and sold to Goudstikker in a widely criticized estate auction in Berlin. The paintings were sold in the early 1970s by the Commander to Norton Simon and his foundations, and they have been on display in the Norton Simon Museum of Art for more than 30 years.
Despite ethical concerns expressed by many, including the grandson of founder Norton Simon, the Norton Simon Museum continued its legal battle to keep the works.
The Norton Simon Museum's defense hinges on a legal sale by the Dutch government to Commander Stroganoff-Scherbatoff after the owner's widow declined a settlement with the government in 1966. During the case in 2012, the court heard that "The Dutch government itself undermined the legitimacy of
herestitution process by describing it as 'bureaucratic, cold and often even callous." The museum sought U.S. Supreme Court review of a June 2014 ruling delivered by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:
* District ...
that allowed van Saher to continue her claim;
the Supreme Court had declined to hear a prior stage of the case in 2010.
In 2017, the court ruled 3–0 against von Saher.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Art museums and galleries in California
Museums in Pasadena, California
Asian art museums in California
Outdoor sculptures in Greater Los Angeles
Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in California
Gardens in California
San Gabriel Valley
Art museums established in 1969
Buildings and structures completed in 1969
Former private collections in the United States
1969 establishments in California
Museums of American art
Art in Greater Los Angeles
Del E. Webb buildings
Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United States