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Norton expands canon of American modern art with two new exhibits

By Jan Engoren ArtsPaper Contributing Writer

The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach has not one, but two new exhibits exploring the various ways American artists have employed abstract styles to convey their experiences of modern life.

With works on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism highlights art produced between 1900 and 1930 by both well-known and lesser known modernists. It works in concert with an exhibit of Norton art, From Man Ray to O’Keeffe, American Modernism at the Norton.

Dawn of a New Age is an attempt to remedy the historical record, in that some of the artists, including women, people of color and non-New York-centric artists, “were left out of the historical equation,” said Ellen Roberts, senior curator of

American art at the Norton Museum.

“These artists all expand the canon of American modernism,” she says. “It’s so exciting to have this work here and great to exhibit these two shows side by side, so they can talk to each other.”

The exhibit includes paintings, sculpture, works on paper and photographs.

According to Roberts, early modernists in the United States came of age during a period of great optimism, new manufacturing plants and new methods of communication and transportation, all reflected in modern artists adopting new and experimental ways of looking at the world, prioritizing emotional experience and harmonious design.

“Modernism has always been a significant focus for the Norton,” says Ghislain d’Humières, director of the museum.

Sooner State-born Letts’s own family, the darkly comic play centers on a sudden family reunion following the disappearance of the clan’s patriarch, Beverly Weston. His soon-to-be declared widow Violet, a pill-popping drug addict, has recently been diagnosed with cancer. The last thing she needs is the return of her three grown daughters — Barbara, Ivy and Karen — with their various own family members in tow. Making her Dramaworks debut as Violet is Sara Morsey, who says of her character, “She’s savage, she’s acidtongued, she’s aggressive, she’s blunt. She’s grown up in such a background of poverty and neglect, abuse. She’s a really damaged person who now has cancer on top of it all and is trying to make a life for herself.

See OSAGE on AT14

Entertainer Alan Cumming delights in not acting his age

By Jan Engoren

Contributing Writer

Although he grew up in Scotland speaking the King’s English, when actor, singer, dancer, emcee, author, reality show host and all-around performer Alan Cumming first came to the United States at the age of 30, the two most foreign words for him were Tucson and Boca Raton.

“I had never heard that name before,” he says. “I thought it was a Mexican dish.”

Since then, he’s added Boca Raton to his vocabulary and has been here more than a few times. Cumming will be returning April 22 for his latest cabaret show, Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age

Well-known in the U.S. for his role as campaign manager Eli Gold in the CBS series The Good Wife, Cumming, 58, has performed in concert halls across the globe, including the Sydney Opera House, London Palladium, Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. Cumming has played God, the devil, Hitler, the pope, a teleporting superhero, Hamlet, all the parts in Macbeth and the emcee in Cabaret in the West End and on Broadway.

He is a five-time Emmy award nominee and two-time Tony award winner as well as Olivier and BAFTA award winner and the author of two children’s books, a book of photographs and stories, a novel and a best-selling memoir, Not My Father’s Son

“We are thrilled to have this iconic performer grace our stage as The Studio at Mizner Park makes its mark as one of South Florida’s newest venues,” said Peg Anderson, See CUMMING on AT14