Modern Spontaneity: Ralph Norton’s Watercolor Collection
The Norton Museum of Art’s founder, Ralph Norton, loved the medium of watercolor and acquired major examples by both modern American and European artists. A selection of his collection will be the subject of the exhibition Modern Spontaneity¸ featuring 15 watercolors from late 19th-century masters such as Winslow Homer through modernists such as Charles Burchfield, Charles Demuth, and Fernand Léger. This exhibition will reveal how watercolor both appeals to artists because of its apparent spontaneity and simultaneously frustrates them with its unforgiving nature. The exhibition is curated by Ellen E. Roberts, Harold and Anne Berkley Smith Curator of American Art.
Exhibition Highlights
Winslow Homer (American, 1836 – 1910), The Hudson River at Blue Ledge, Essex County, 1889
Charles Demuth (American, 1883 – 1935), Eggplant, Carrots and Tomatoes, 1927
Marc Chagall (French, born Russian Empire, now Belarus, 1887 – 1985), Red Horse (Fiesta), 1942
Charles E. Burchfield (American, 1893 – 1967), In the Swamp, 1917
Fernand Léger (French, 1881 – 1955), Bicycle Riders, 1944
Organized by the Norton Museum of Art. Support for this exhibition was provided by the Sydelle and Arthur I. Meyer Endowment Fund.