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Norton Museum of Art Showcases American Collection in American
Seascapes: Artists at The Shore
6/5/2004 - 9/5/2004
West Palm Beach, FL- American Seascapes: Artists at The Shore
features 13 American works of art, made between 1912 and 1958, from
the Museum's permanent collection. This delightful summer exhibition
will be on view in the Docter Gallery from June 5, through August
2004. Conceived as a refreshing visual respite for visitors to
Florida in summer, all the paintings and works on paper in American
Seascapes: Artists at The Shore depict coastline scenes. Artists
represented include John Marin, Jane Petersen, Selden Connor Gile
and Childe Hassam.
John Marin (American, 1870-1953), a well-known watercolorist, was a
master at capturing the fluidity of motion and of simplifying nature
into semiabstract compositions. Cape Split, Maine, 1941 depicts the
rugged Maine coastline, turbulent Atlantic Ocean, and a tottering
sailboat at full sail. Marin delighted in capturing nature at its
points of greatest activity. Originally from New Jersey, he began
painting watercolors when he was 15 years old. Eschewing his
family's wish for him to become an architect, he took off for Europe
to study etching. There he met Alfred Stieglitz, who arranged his
first one-man exhibition at "291" gallery in New York. By 1914 Marin
began to paint from nature, the inspiration of his youth. It was
this year that he discovered Maine, to which he made annual sojourns
for the rest of his life.
Another artist in the exhibition, Jane Peterson, (American,
1876-1965) combines Fauvist and Impressionist styles with academic
drawing. Her two paintings, Florida Landscape and By the Water,
depict the Intracoastal Waterway near Palm Beach. Born in Elgin,
Illinois, Peterson moved to New York City in 1895 to study at the
Pratt Institute. Peterson also traveled to Europe, studying painting
with Frank Brangwyn in London, Jacques Emile Blanche and Andre Hite
in Paris, and Joaquin Sorolla in Madrid. At one point, she joined
Louis Comfort Tiffany on a continental painting expedition in his
private railway car. By 1912 she was teaching painting at the Art
Students League in New York City and at the Maryland Institute in
Baltimore.
Also included in the exhibition is a painting by Selden Connor Gile
(American, 1877-1947). Gile was born in Maine, but became famous as
a member of "The Society of Six", a group of California Bay Area
painters devoted to a modernist style of representation most
reminiscent of the French Impressionists and Fauvists. Two Fishermen
and Boat, 1917 a colorful, sun-drenched scene, reveals his embrace
of these modern styles.
The exhibition also includes a rarely seen etching by Childe Hassam,
(American, 1859-1935), one of America's foremost Impressionists.
Hassam was a founding member of "The Ten", a group of artists who
seceded from the Society of American Artists in order to show their
work in small, non-juried exhibitions. After extensive travel in
Europe and living and studying in Paris for three years, he settled
in New York. Many of his paintings in the 1890s and 1900s were
scenes of New York in which he captured the life of the city with
his unique sense of color and mood. He spent most of the rest of his
life painting east coast landscapes. In 1919 Hassam bought a house,
"Willow Bend," on Egypt Lane in East Hampton, New York as a
permanent summer retreat. The Birth of Venus, Montauk, 1922, recalls
Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, ca. 1485-1486. In this work,
which Hassam described as " treating the modern with the classical"
the strength of Hassam's draftsmanship is clearly visible.
American Seascapes: Artists at the Shore was co-curated by Jonathan
Stuhlman, curator of American art and Lisa Heard, curatorial
assistant. The Norton Museum of Art's American Collection currently
consists of approximately 1,000 works of art. Displayed in five
galleries in the Museum's Main Building, the American art collection
represents many major movements of this genre, including works by
Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe and
Jackson Pollock, and portraits by Robert Henri, George Luks and John
Sloan, among others.
The Norton Museum of Art is the largest art museum in Florida. The
Museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 1 to 5
p.m. (Closed Mondays from May through October and on major
holidays.) General admission is $8 for adults, $3 for visitors ages
13-21, and free for Members and children under 13. West Palm Beach
residents receive free admission to the permanent collection every
Saturday, with proof of residency. Palm Beach County residents
receive free admission to the permanent collection the first
Saturday of each month, with proof of residency. An additional
charge may apply for special exhibitions. For general information,
please call (561) 832-5196.
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The Norton Museum
of Art is a major cultural attraction in Florida.
The Museum is internationally known for its distinguished permanent
collection featuring
19th and 20th century European and American art, Chinese, contemporary art and photography.
From its founding the Norton has been famous for its masterpieces
of 19th century and 20th century painting
and sculpture by European artists such as Brancusi, Gauguin, Matisse,
Miró, Monet, Picasso
and by Americans such as Davis, Hassam, Hopper, Manship, O'Keeffe,
Pollock and Sheeler.
View special exhibitions and attend lectures and exhibition programs
for both children and adults.
THE NORTON MUSEUM OF ART
1451 S Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach FL 33401 Florida
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