Videos

Watch a selection of videos of Museum lectures, documentaries and artist interviews.

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Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel: An Artwork by John Cage

Curatorial Assistant Tom Norris discusses Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel, an artwork by American composer and artist John Cage (1912–1992). Created in 1969 as a tribute to artist Marcel Duchamp, Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel is a multiple comprised of five components: four Plexigrams and one lithograph, all with randomly placed text and images. This innovative work, with its captivating construction and endless interpretation by the viewer, is featured in the exhibition Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel: An Artwork by John Cage on view September 24, 2010 through March 28, 2011.

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Hiroshige: Visions of Japan

Curator Christine Knoke provides a brief overview of the life and career of Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), whose woodblock prints are featured in the exhibition Hiroshige: Visions of Japan, on view at the Norton Simon Museum from June 4, 2010 through January 17, 2011.

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Outside the Box: Portraiture after Ingres

Saturday, March 13, 2010
In 1867, the year of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s immense memorial exhibition, portraiture reached its apogee in France. At this same moment, however, the genre was making its most significant and lasting shift away from its traditions. Taken up by the Impressionists and continued by masters such as Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp and Warhol, the conventions of portraiture were undermined, challenged, subverted and silenced—and yet simultaneously reinforced by these avant-garde artists. Leah Lehmbeck, Assistant Curator at the Norton Simon Museum, traces these changes in the genre from the mid-19th century to the present day.

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Video: Sam Francis and the Basel Murals

This short video provides a brief background on California artist Sam Francis (1923–1994) and his monumental triptych, the Basel Murals, painted in Paris in the late 1950s. His Basel Mural I was donated to the Museum in 1967, and Fragments 1 and 2 of Basel Mural III, which was partially destroyed in the mid-1960s, were donated to the Museum in 2009 by the Sam Francis Foundation. Features Debra Burchett-Lere, Director of the Sam Francis Foundation, and Leah Lehmbeck, Assistant Curator of the Norton Simon Museum.

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Lecture: The Fashion for Ingres

Saturday, November 14, 2009
Aileen Ribeiro, the Oak Foundation Professor in the History of Dress at the Courtald Institute, examines the often-complex views Ingres had with regard to fashion during his long career; though he had a traditional bias toward history painting and allegory, he nevertheless became one of the supreme artists of clothing during the rise of haute couture and the cult of the designer in mid-19th-century Paris.

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Lecture: Ingres and the Comtesse d'Haussonville

Saturday, November 7, 2009
Edgar Munhall, curator emeritus at The Frick Collection and one of the world's leading scholars of Ingres, discusses the importance of the comtesse’s portrait within Ingres's long, multi-faceted career and introduces the artist’s little-known subject, Louise d'Haussonville, as one of the most remarkable women of her time.

Watch: Ingres and the Comtesse d'Haussonville: Small | Medium | Large

Video: The Restoration of Francisco de Zurbarán's "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose"

This nearly seven-minute video provides a detailed look at how the Norton Simon's spectacular 17th-century painting, "Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose" by Spanish master Francisco de Zurbarán, was carefully restored in 2008 by Mark Leonard, Head of Paintings Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Watch: The Restoration: Small | Medium | Large

Lecture: The Intimate Interior: Vermeer and His Contemporaries

Saturday, January 31, 2009
The intriguingly subtle portrayals of women in interiors, engaged in private pursuits, are among the most compelling images produced in 17th-century Netherlands. Executed in luminous color, these scenes of love and amusement among the privileged classes encapsulate many of the signature achievements of Dutch painting: refined technique, convincing illusionism and spatial construction, mastery of light as well as sophisticated moral and social themes. Anne T. Woollett, Associate Curator, Department of Paintings, The J. Paul Getty Museum, considers Vermeer's innovative approach in A Lady Writing and other works in the context of the visual rivalries and artistic exchanges between contemporary masters of private genre subjects, including Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu and Frans van Mieris.

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Lecture: Vermeer's Painting Techniques: Time Stilled and Light Made Tangible

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Vermeer's paintings suggest that time has been momentarily stopped, giving the viewer leisure to explore his light-filled rooms and contemplate his pensive figures. Technical study of Vermeer's materials and methods has revealed painting practices the artist developed to achieve these luminous effects, and artistic choices he made to create a timeless and self-contained world. Melanie Gifford, Scientific Research Department, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., explores A Lady Writing in the context of Vermeer's techniques throughout his career, illustrated with close details and microscopic images of the paintings that give a new view of his extraordinary gifts.

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Lecture: What Makes a Vermeer a Vermeer? Searching for Clues in the Conservation Lab

Saturday, November 8, 2008
As in A Lady Writing, Vermeer’s paintings have a visual power that draws the viewer into a world that seems both momentary and lasting. Arthur Wheelock, Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, examines the way in which Vermeer carefully manipulated effects of light, color and perspective to enhance the physical and emotional content of his paintings. Technical examinations, including X-rays and infrared reflectography, add new dimensions to our understanding of the fascinating creative process that underlies his masterpieces.

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Lecture: Body Matters: Marcel Duchamp, Surrealism and the Making of Étant Donnés

Saturday, October 25, 2008
Marcel Duchamp began work on his diorama-like assemblage when he was actively involved in Surrealist exhibition design and closely aligned with the aims and ideals of André Breton's exiled group in New York. Michael Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, examines Duchamp's final work, titled Étant donnés, 1946?66, now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, within the context of Surrealism.

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An Interview with Dina Vierny, Model and Muse to Aristide Maillol

Late in his life, artist Aristide Maillol (French, 1861-1944) worked very closely with Dina Vierny, who over the course of ten years posed for many of Maillol’s famous sculptures, including those that grace the garden of the Norton Simon Museum. This interview with Vierny, who served as president of the Musée Maillol in Paris until her death in January 2009, was filmed in the summer of 2007, and offers a rare glimpse into Madame Vierny’s association with Maillol, as well as the story of Norton Simon’s interest in Maillol’s artworks.

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Documentary: A Centennial Celebration: The Life of Norton Simon

The year 2007 marked the centennial of museum founder Norton Simon’s birth. To celebrate the occasion, the Norton Simon Museum transformed one of its galleries into a graphic timeline that recounted the life and work of Mr. Simon. This presentation, called A Centennial Celebration, is now available on the Museum’s website in the form of an 11-minute video, featuring interviews with former employees and rarely seen photographs from the Museum’s archives. This informative video provides insight into Mr. Simon’s many accomplishments in the business and art worlds.

Watch: A Centennial Celebration: The Life of Norton Simon: Coming Soon