Norton Simon Museum Podcasts
79 episodes - English - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsA collection of interviews and features on topics related to the Norton Simon Museum's exhibitions and collections.
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Episodes
Exhibition Trailer: By Day & by Night: Paris in the Belle Époque
October 03, 2019 07:00Exhibition Trailer: By Day & by Night: Paris in the Belle Époque, on view October 4, 2019–March 2, 2020.
Lecture: Not Your Parents’ Norton Simon Museum—or is It?
September 23, 2019 17:00Suzanne Muchnic, art writerSaturday, September 21, 2019Norton Simon was always a subject of speculation. In the art world, he became such a high-powered but unpredictable collector that observers couldn’t help wondering what he would buy—or sell—next. His courtships with museums and educational institutions led to pointed questions about what would become of his magnificent collection, even after he had installed the artworks at his own museum in Pasadena. Following Mr. Simon’s death in 1993,...
Lecture: Fashioning the Feminine in 18th-Century France: Dress, Desire and Domesticity in Three Works from The Frick Collection
August 27, 2019 17:00Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, fashion historianSaturday, August 24, 2019Fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell examines how the sumptuous fashions of the mid-18th century inform our interpretations of three exquisite French paintings on loan to the Norton Simon from The Frick Collection.Presented in conjunction with The Sweetness of Life: Three 18th-Century French Paintings from The Frick Collection, on view June 14–September 9, 2019.
Lecture: Female Models in the “Century of Women”: From Fiction to Reality in Chardin, Boucher and Greuze
June 18, 2019 00:00David Pullins, Assistant Curator, The Frick CollectionSaturday, June 15, 2019Focusing on three important paintings from The Frick Collection lent to the Museum, this lecture explores the status of female models in 18th-century France, especially how they were torn between their identification as faithful wives, professional models and disreputable courtesans. Considering the realities, myths and apocryphal stories of these women, it delves in particular into our desire to read identifiable, h...
Lecture: Conservation of the Dido Tapestry: A New Chapter
April 17, 2019 07:00Hannah Riley, Principal Conservator, Riley Textile ConservationSaturday, April 13, 2019In 2017, conservator Hannah Riley studied and repaired the Flemish tapestry The Death of Dido, currently on view in Once Upon a Tapestry: Woven Tales of Helen and Dido. This lecture explores the twists and turns Riley and her conservation companions encountered as they wove their way across the more than 350-year-old "textile landscape."Presented in conjunction with Once Upon a Tapestry: Woven Tales of Hele...
Lecture: Titian’s “Lady in White”: A Mistress of the Artist’s Soul
March 25, 2019 07:00Stephan Koja, Director, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen DresdenSaturday, March 23, 2019Art historians continue to debate the youthful subject portrayed in Lady in White. Is she a courtesan? Or is she Titian’s daughter Lavinia? Is she an illegitimate child, or just an ideal portrayal of beauty? At one and the same time, the person appears before us as an individual and an ideal. But where does the never-ending fascination with this painting come from? And why is it in D...
Performance: Fate and the Heroine: Dido, Queen of Carthage
March 16, 2019 07:00Nancy Evans Dance TheatreSaturday, March 16, 2019Nancy Evans Dance Theatre explores through dance, music, art and text the tragic love story between Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Prince Aeneas of Troy from Virgil’s epic poem the Aeneid. Branching off from Virgil’s tale, this powerful performance tells the tale of Dido from her perspective. Following the performance, audience members enjoy a question-and-answer period with the choreographer and dancers.Presented in conjunction with Once Upon a ...
Lecture: Matisse and His Models
March 06, 2019 08:00Emily Talbot, Acting Chief Curator, Norton Simon MuseumSaturday, March 2, 2019Working from a live model was a vital aspect of Henri Matisse’s artistic practice. He depended on the women who posed for him for creative inspiration, and several of them became trusted studio assistants and surrogate family members. This lecture focuses on three important women—the Italian known as Laurette, the former ballet dancer Henriette Darricarrère and the Russian Lydia Delectorskaya—to explore the ways tha...
Exhibition Trailer: Titian’s 'Portrait of a Lady in White,' c. 1561, on loan from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
February 13, 2019 08:00Exhibition Trailer: Titian’s Portrait of a Lady in White, c. 1561, on loan from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
Exhibition Trailer: The Sweetness of Life: Three 18th-Century French Paintings from The Frick Collection
February 13, 2019 08:00Exhibition Trailer: The Sweetness of Life: Three 18th-Century French Paintings from The Frick Collection, on view June 14–September 9, 2019.
Lecture: From Carpaccio’s “Sant Ursula” to Titian’s “Lady in White”: The Feminine Mystique in Renaissance Venice
February 12, 2019 08:00Patricia Fortini Brown, Professor Emerita of Art & Archaeology, Princeton UniversitySaturday, February 9, 2019Wives, virgins or courtesans? The feminine mystique of Renaissance Venice sanctioned two desirable roles for honorable women: as a wife and mother managing the family palace or as a virginal bride of Christ confined to a convent. Carpaccio’s Life of Saint Ursula presents an elegant paradigm of duty, forbearance and sacrifice, suitable for both such options. But there was also a third,...
Lecture: Love at First Sight: Romanelli’s Dido and Aeneas Tapestry Suite
January 15, 2019 08:00Gloria Williams Sander, Curator, Norton Simon MuseumSat, January 12, 2019Virgil’s tale of Dido and Aeneas, from books 1 and 4 of the Aeneid, tells of the Queen of Carthage, a complex figure noted for her strength and character. She meets the shipwrecked Aeneas and the two fall in love, a union that could not survive Aeneas’s destiny to leave Carthage and found Rome. This tragic love story found fertile ground in the medium of tapestry, and Giovanni Francesco Romanelli designed what is perhaps...
Lecture: Beyond the Pale: The Radical Realism of Degas’s “Little Dancer”
December 03, 2018 08:00Emily Talbot, Assistant Curator, Norton Simon MuseumSat, March 10, 2018Beloved by museum visitors today, Degas’s Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen was deeply divisive when it was first exhibited at the sixth Impressionist Exhibition in 1881. Although some viewers welcomed the tinted wax figurine as an exciting new direction in realist art, many others were disturbed by Degas’s unidealized treatment of the dancer’s body and facial features, which he reinforced by outfitting the statuette in a cotto...
Lecture: Robber Baron Collectors of the Gilded Age: Morgan, Frick, De Young
December 03, 2018 08:00Colin B. Bailey, Director, Morgan Library & MuseumSat, May 5, 2018In his comic novel The Outcry, published in 1911, Henry James characterizes the American robber baron collectors as the "conquering horde . . . only armed now with huge chequebooks instead of spears and battle-axes." The creation of outstanding private collections of European art in America was a phenomenon of the Gilded Age. James based the character of the American banker, Breckenridge Bender—"the wretch who bagged Lady Lappi...
Pillars from the Bharhut Stupa Railing
November 08, 2018 08:00Encounters with the CollectionAssistant Curator Stephanie Rozman provides a closer look at two pillars from the Bharhut Stupa Railing, Female Deity (Yakshi) and an Amorous Couple (Mithuna) and The Great Departure of Siddhartha from the Norton Simon collection.
Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Cirque Fernando, Rider on a White Horse
October 26, 2018 07:00Encounters with the CollectionAssistant Curator Emily Talbot shares with viewers one of her favorite works in the Norton Simon collection: Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Cirque Fernando, Rider on a White Horse from 1887–1888.
Lecture: Ellsworth Kelly: From New York to Paris and Back Again, Thrice
October 15, 2018 07:00Yve-Alain Bois, Professor of Art History, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton UniversitySat, October 13, 2018As a young enlisted soldier in World War II, Ellsworth Kelly spent a brief spell in Paris. After the war, following two frustrating years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, he returned to the French capital for a longer period. Postwar Paris offered Kelly the chance to quickly master the pictorial language of modernism, and by age 26, he had already painted his fir...
Line & Color: The Nature of Ellsworth Kelly
July 31, 2018 07:00Curatorial Associate Tom Norris discusses the exhibition, Line & Color: The Nature of Ellsworth Kelly, on view through October 29, 2018.
Guercino's Aldrovandi Dog
February 28, 2018 08:00Encounters with the CollectionChief Curator Carol Togneri shares with viewers one of her favorite paintings in the Norton Simon collection: Guercino’s beloved Aldrovandi Dog from c. 1625.
Lecture: Rembrandt and the Lure of the Renaissance
December 12, 2017 08:00Anne T. Woollett, Curator, J. Paul Getty MuseumSat, December 9, 2017By 1640, after nearly a decade of extraordinary achievement as a portrait and history painter in Amsterdam, Rembrandt rose to fame and prosperity. Self Portrait at the Age of 34 (London, National Gallery), in which Rembrandt portrays himself in the rich accoutrements of fur and velvet, has often been seen as an index to the master’s status at that time. Anne Woollett examines the ways in which this painting, with its referenc...
Examining Giovanni di Paolo's Branchini Madonna
October 09, 2017 17:00In 2016, Giovanni di Paolo's masterpiece, "Branchini Madonna,” from 1427, underwent conservation work and technical analysis at the J. Paul Getty Museum. In this video, Norton Simon Curator Gloria Williams Sander interviews Yvonne Szafran, Senior Conservator and Head of Paintings Conservation at the J. Paul Getty Museum, about this study and its findings.
The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
April 06, 2017 17:00Curator Gloria Williams Sander discusses the life of Galka Scheyer, the enterprising dealer responsible for the art phenomenon the “Blue Four”—Lyonel Feininger, Alexei Jawlensky, Paul Klee and Vassily Kandinsky, and how her art collection and archives entered the Pasadena Institute of Art, now the Norton Simon Museum.
Taking Shape: Degas's Modèle Bronzes
January 11, 2017 08:00Assistant Curator Emily Talbot examines the improvisational nature of Edgar Degas’s work in three-dimensional form, and the importance of the Norton Simon’s collection of Degas’s modèle bronzes.
Audio: Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom’ on Loan From the Art Institute of Chicago
December 09, 2016 18:00In this audio podcast, Chief Curator Carol Togneri talks to Gloria Groom, Chair of European Painting and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, about Van Gogh’s iconic Bedroom. Produced in conjunction with the installation of that painting at the Museum from December 9, 2016 through March 6, 2017.
Norton Simon Collects Picasso
October 28, 2016 17:00Associate Curator Emily A. Beeny gives a brief overview of Norton Simon’s collection of works by Picasso and explores their role in the broader story of his collections.
Rembrandt Portraits in the Norton Simon Museum
October 18, 2016 17:00Curator Gloria Williams Sander gives a brief overview of the Norton Simon Museum’s collection of portraits by the great Dutch painter-printmaker of the Golden Age, Rembrandt van Rijn.
Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre
August 30, 2016 20:30Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre, on view from September 2, 2016–January 16, 2017, Curatorial Associate Tom Norris discusses artworks from the middle of the 20th century that explore the darker side of the human condition.
Duchamp, Warhol and Identity
March 02, 2016 23:30Produced in conjunction with the exhibition Duchamp to Pop, on view from March 4–August 29, 2016, Curatorial Associate Tom Norris examines artworks by Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol that address the issue of identity and portraiture.
Vuillard in the Norton Simon Museum
October 08, 2015 04:00Associate Curator Emily Beeny discusses two exceptional works by Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940) in the Norton Simon Museum’s collection: Paysages et Intérieurs (Landscapes and Interiors), an exquisite print album of 1899, and First Fruits, the artist’s monumental decorative canvas that was recently cleaned and conserved.
A Revolution of the Palette: The First Synthetic Blues and their Impact on French Artists
July 23, 2015 21:00Conservator John Griswold explores the accidental discovery of Prussian blue in 1704, which helped to open up new possibilities for artistic expression at the dawn of the Enlightenment. This video was created in conjunction with the A Revolution of the Palette: The First Synthetic Blues and their Impact on French Artists, on view July 17, 2015–January 04, 2016.
Fragonard’s Enterprise: The Artist and the Literature of Travel
July 14, 2015 17:00Curator Gloria Williams Sander discusses the drawings created by a young Jean-Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732–1806) during his first and most important stay in Italy in the mid-18th century. These exquisite works document Fragonard’s voyage with his patron Jean Claude Richard de Saint-Non to see the great artistic treasures of Florence, Bologna, and Padua, among other cities. This video was created in conjunction with the Fragonard’s Enterprise: The Artist and the Literature of Travel, on view...
Pasadena’s Giverny: Nancy Goslee Power and the Transformation of the Norton Simon Museum Sculpture Garden
July 03, 2015 17:30Landscape Designer Nancy Goslee Power recounts her creative journey to transform the Museum’s Sculpture Garden, which debuted in the autumn of 1999. This video was produced to mark the garden’s fifteenth anniversary and the publication of “A Living Work of Art: The Norton Simon Museum Sculpture Garden.”
Human/Nature: Photographers Constructing the Natural World
May 30, 2015 00:302015 Academic Intern Caitlin Silberman discusses the transformation of landscape and nature photography since the 1960s, as photographers approached “nature” and “culture” in their images not in opposition, but rather in dialogue. This podcast was produced in conjunction with the exhibition Human/Nature: Photographers Constructing the Natural World, on view from March 6 through August 31, 2015.
James McNeill Whistler's "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1," on Loan from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris
March 20, 2015 17:00In this video podcast, produced in conjunction with the exhibition Tête-à-tête: Three Masterpieces from the Museé d’Orsay, Associate Curator Emily A. Beeny discusses James McNeill Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, also called "Portrait of the Artist’s Mother," widely regarded as one of the greatest works of American art to date. The painting is on view at the Norton Simon Museum from March 27 through June 22, 2015.
Édouard Manet's "Émile Zola," on Loan from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris
March 20, 2015 16:45In this video podcast, produced in conjunction with the exhibition Tête-à-tête: Three Masterpieces from the Museé d’Orsay, Associate Curator Emily A. Beeny explores the relationship between artist and sitter through a brief history of this intimate portrait. The painting is on view at the Norton Simon Museum from March 27 through June 22, 2015.
Paul Cézanne's "The Card Players," on Loan from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris
March 20, 2015 16:30In this video podcast, produced in conjunction with the exhibition Tête-à-tête: Three Masterpieces from the Museé d’Orsay, Associate Curator Emily A. Beeny explores Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players, and the collapse of the artist's relationship with writer and childhood friend Émile Zola. The painting is on view at the Norton Simon Museum from March 27 through June 22, 2015.
Live from Pasadena: Norton Simon and the Rose Parade
December 26, 2014 19:00The Norton Simon Museum and its iconic rose placard are seen by millions of viewers—both in the grandstand and at home watching television—every New Year’s Day. This short video looks back at the history of the Rose Parade and how Mr. Simon increased the Museum’s visibility during this event to make it an integral part of this New Year’s tradition.
Manet's "The Railway" on Loan from the National Gallery of Art, Washington
November 14, 2014 19:30In this audio podcast, Chief Curator Carol Togneri talks to Mary Morton, Curator and Head of the Department of French Paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, about the fascinating history of Manet’s masterpiece The Railway. Produced in conjunction with the installation of that painting at the Museum from December 5, 2014 through March 2, 2015.
Lock, Stock & Barrel: Norton Simon’s Purchase of the Duveen Brothers Gallery
October 03, 2014 17:30Chief Curator Carol Togneri narrates this fascinating story of Norton Simon’s purchase of the famed Duveen Brothers Gallery in 1964. Some of the most important artworks that came from that purchase are highlighted, as well as two paintings that are rarely on view due to their condition and questionable attribution. This video was created in conjunction with the exhibition Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery, on view from October 24, 2014–April 27, 2015.
The Norton Simon Museum Sculpture Garden
September 03, 2014 17:00The autumn of 2014 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Museum’s sculpture garden designed by Nancy Goslee Power. This short video looks back at that exciting project, from Power’s inspirations and challenges, to the important role that the garden plays in the museum visitor experience.
Face to Face with Judy Dater
July 15, 2014 17:00Judy Dater contributed to photography’s break-out moment from Modernism in the 1960s. One of a handful of female photographers from that period, her compelling and insightful photographs established a new model in portraiture. In this video podcast, Curator Gloria Williams Sander interviews Dater in conjunction with the exhibition Face It: The Photographic Portrait and discusses Dater’s works and her approach to this genre.
Monumental
April 15, 2014 17:30In this video podcast, Assistant Curator Melody Rod-ari discusses the history and production of the Norton Simon Museum’s rare, monumental thangka, Future Buddha Maitreya Flanked by the Eighth Dalai Lama and His Tutor. Assistant to the Director of Operations David Johnson then explains the efforts to install this extremely large, flat field painting in our galleries. This podcast was produced in conjunction with the exhibition In the Land of Snow: Buddhist Art of the Himalayas, on view March ...
Goya in the Norton Simon Museum
February 24, 2014 18:15Curator Leah Lehmbeck gives a brief overview of the Norton Simon Museum’s collection of works by Spanish master Francisco de Goya.
Audio: Goya's "Don Pedro, Duque de Osuna," c. 1795–1800, on Loan from The Frick Collection, New York
November 18, 2013 00:00In this audio podcast, produced in conjunction with the loan of Goya’s handsome portrait of Don Pedro, Duque de Osuna, c. 1795–1800, on Loan from The Frick Collection, New York, Chief Curator Carol Togneri interviews Frick Senior Curator Susan Grace Galassi. The artist’s illustrious career, his long-term relationship to the Duke and his family, and the political upheaval in early 19th-century Spain are discussed in this fascinating interview. The painting is on view at the Norton Simon Museum...
Powdered Pigments: A Focus on Pastels in the Norton Simon Museum
October 31, 2013 05:00Curator Leah Lehmbeck takes a look at the Norton Simon’s exceptional collection of 19th-century pastels, focusing on Degas’s mastery of the medium, as well as examples by Forain and Toulouse-Lautrec. Created to mark the renovation of the Museum’s 19th-century art wing, the video showcases the Museum’s new pastel gallery, which was designed to best display these fine and delicate works of art.
Learning to Look at Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum
September 19, 2013 18:30In this video podcast, Assistant Curator Melody Rod-ari and Head of Education Lynn LaBate provide an introduction to the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain artworks in the Museum’s collection. Rod-ari and LaBate discuss how the important symbols found in these works can help visitors better understand their history and the stories they tell.
Beyond Brancusi: The Space of Sculpture
April 26, 2013 23:00Curator Leah Lehmbeck examines how the great sculptors of the 20th century were influenced by Constantin Brancusi and how sculpture moved from being a self-contained, three-dimensional object to one that engages with its surrounding space as presented in the exhibition Beyond Brancusi: The Space of Sculpture, on view April 26, 2013–January 6, 2014.
"monument" on the survival of Mrs. Reppin
March 27, 2013 23:00In this video podcast, Curatorial Associate Tom Norris discusses "monument" on the survival of Mrs. Reppin, an artwork by American artist Dan Flavin (1933-1996). On display for the first time at the Museum since its acquisition in the late 1960s, "monument" has all of the characteristics that make an artwork by Flavin so recognizable-the materials, the engagement with the exhibition space and the idea of a corner icon. Norris provides an in-depth overview of this dramatic artwork’s history, s...
A Centennial Celebration: The Life of Norton Simon
March 05, 2013 18:00The 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 in 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 bus...
A Closer Look at Tapestries in the Norton Simon Collection
December 06, 2012 18:00In this video podcast, Curator Gloria Williams Sander speaks with textile conservator Stan Derelian about the Museum’s collection of eight tapestries from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Shot during Derelian’s recent survey of the collection, the podcast delves into the tremendous care and attention to detail that went into creating the works, their remarkable condition, and best practices for caring for such works. Sander vividly describes the scenes and stories depicted in several of the...