Upcoming Events for Exhibitions from 2010 - 2019

Oct. 01, 2011 - Apr 02, 2012 : Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:20:19 -0700

The first goal enumerated upon the founding of the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles in 1960 was to “create a pool of master artisan-printers in the United States” in an effort to revive the method of fine art lithography. With those words, and the dedication to create a workshop that would educate printers, artists, curators and collectors alike, Tamarind sparked a renaissance in the graphic arts—one that spread well beyond Los Angeles and the medium of lithography—establishing and legitimizing all methods of printmaking as viable and valuable forms of art making, even for the most avant-garde of post-war artists. Proof will explore the significance of printmaking and its new possibilities as first re-envisioned in post-war Southern California.

Drawing on the extensive collection of the Norton Simon Museum with a few select loans, the exhibition includes works by the local founders of this movement such as John Altoon, Garo Antreasian, Sam Francis, Ed Moses, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha and June Wayne, as well as those who traveled to Los Angeles specifically to print, such as Joseph Albers, Bruce Conner, Lee Mullican, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg and Robert Rauschenberg.

Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California, is part of Pacific Standard Time, an unprecedented collaboration of more than fifty cultural institutions across Southern California, which are coming together to tell the story of the birth of the LA art scene. Pacific Standard Time takes place for six months beginning October 2011.

Oct. 01, 2011 - Apr 02, 2012 : The Original Print: An Introduction to Printmaking in the Postwar Period

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:46:02 -0700

The art world of the late 1950s experienced a groundswell of interest in printmaking that forever changed the artistic landscape of America. By that time, the most avant-garde of artists had become interested in making editioned works on paper with a press, using methods no longer relegated to a select group who defined themselves solely as “printmakers.” Because this development was still in its germinal stages in the 1950s, however, there existed only a handful of places in the country where eager young artists could learn the techniques of printmaking. Academic institutions tended to favor familiar and conventional intaglio methods, drawing on Rembrandt, Goya and Whistler, art history’s most successful artist-printmakers. Lithography and screenprinting, which suited the growing pop and minimal aesthetic as well as the more painterly approaches of expressionism, were harder for artists to adopt. These methods, traditionally used only for commercial printing, were still in their infancy as fine-art techniques. As a result, they were rarely taught in university art programs, and by the late 1950s, there were only three or four studios in the country that could claim success as fine-art lithography printshops, and even fewer for screenprinting.

The establishment of Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles in 1960 manifestly changed all of that. The workshop instituted an artist and printer training program as well as educational outreach that emphasized the nature of printed work. It insisted on the advantages of collaboration: a trained printer did the printing, while the artist was responsible for the creative impulse. The image of a lone artist, removed from contemporary culture or from collaboration, and guided only by gut instinct to a singular visual epiphany, gave way to that of an artist who was far more calculating, who drew from popular culture, who accepted a carefully crafted image and who could embrace an editioned work. The cumulative effect of these developments was an unprecedented explosion in printmaking across the country.

Because this story is centered on less-familiar methods of art making—many of which may be new to our visitors—The Original Print introduces the methods and terminology most commonly used in printmaking. The exhibition, organized as a companion to Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California, demonstrates the four main types of printmaking: relief printing, intaglio, lithography and screenprinting. The explanatory texts, archival documentation, photographs, video footage and objects in the gallery seek to contextualize the nature of making works of art in an edition.

Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2012 : Memling's "Portrait of a Man" on Loan from The Frick Collection

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:27:05 -0700

Hans Memling’s brilliance as one of the most formative Early Netherlandish painters is clearly evident in The Frick Collection’s panel Portrait of a Man, from the mid-1470s. From January through April, this enigmatic image will reside in the Early Renaissance gallery alongside the Norton Simon Foundation’s own religious panel by Memling, Christ Giving His Blessing, from around 1478. The remarkable quantity of Memling’s extant portraits—in all, about fifty of the hundred or so panels that have been attributed to his hand or his workshop—testifies to the artist’s popularity and renown during his lifetime. All of these portraits were probably painted after his move to Bruges in 1465 from his birthplace in Seligenstadt, Germany. They demonstrate his awareness of a long line of counterparts, such as Robert Campin, Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Petrus Christus and Gerard David. Above all, they reveal his indebtedness to Rogier van der Weyden, with whom he assuredly trained in Brussels. Upon Rogier’s death in 1464, Memling made his way to the thriving city of Bruges, where he would buy his citizenship, marry, have three children and paint for the remainder of his life.

In the stable economic and political climate of the 1460s and 1470s, Bruges was a flourishing center of commerce, and the city was filled with ranks of successful locals and foreigners alike. The Frick’s portrait, dated to around 1475, likely depicts one of these prosperous bankers or merchants who were eager to have their likenesses immortalized by Memling, who had already achieved wide fame and fruitful private commissions in his adopted city. Given the panel’s northern Italian provenance, it has been suggested that the sitter was from Italy; while a sitter from a northern locale has also been posited, the identity of this dark-eyed, determined individual remains unknown. Other portraits by Memling reveal clues to the identity of his sitters: they might hold attributes such as a letter, coin or ring, and in a few cases, their ages or names are inscribed. Here, the anonymous sitter grasps the strap of his hat and gazes confidently at the object of his attention from inside his fictive frame. The landscape holds no particular hints of his origin, although scholars have commented on the fascination of Italian clients for northern landscape painting and their willingness to pay a higher price to have such a background painted for their own portraits. Though Memling was not the first northerner to place his figures, both sacred and profane, in outdoor settings, the export of his paintings to other countries, especially Italy, would create an indelible mark on portrait painting from that point forward. Works such as Portrait of a Man would be admired and emulated by Italian artists who were seminal in their own right. Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci would all paint signature works that suggest a familiarity with Memling’s common patterns and unique positioning of figures in lush landscapes. Memling’s Portrait of a Man will be installed in the museum’s Early Renaissance gallery, surrounded by near-contemporary northern and Italian sources of inspiration and followers, such as Dirk Bouts, Gerard David, Giovanni Bellini and other stellar examples from the Simon collections.

The portrait made its way from Bruges to northern Italy at an unknown date. By 1929, it was with the Matthiesen Gallery in Berlin; that same dealer arranged for its sale in 1932 to the Belgian diplomat and publicist Baron Joseph van der Elst and his wife, Baroness Allison Roebling van der Elst, who were in Vienna. At the outbreak of World War II, Van der Elst was deported by the Germans, and his entire collection was sent to New York, where he would become the Belgian consul general in 1941. By 1958, The Frick Collection was beginning a search for a significant purchase to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of its founder’s death; 10 years later, this ravishing panel was purchased from the Van der Elsts to mark the establishment of The Frick Collection, one of the most beloved and esteemed private museums in America.

Apr. 20 - Sep. 03, 2012 : Lessons of the Cherry Blossom: Japanese Woodblock Prints

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:48:00 -0700

The year 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the historical gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees from Tokyo, Japan to Washington, DC. In celebration of this diplomatic event, the Norton Simon Museum presents Lessons of the Cherry Blossom: Japanese Woodblock Prints, a small exhibition of 17 Japanese woodblock prints from the Museum’s permanent collection. Created by acclaimed artists Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Katsukawa Shunsho, Chobunsai Eishi, Totoya Hokkei and Hasui Kawase, the prints on view explore the themes of the four seasons, life’s ephemerality and famous places (meisho) of the Edo Period (1615–1868).