Gallery gives gift to Henry

The Henry Art Gallery has been named as one of 29 museums in the United States and abroad to receive gifts of contemporary artwork from the well-known collection of Peter and Eileen Norton. The Nortons announced they are donating nearly 1,000 artworks, with a total estimated value of more than $2 million, to the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery in London, as well as smaller museums, including the Henry Art Gallery.

The Nortons are donating the works, organized in thematic packages, to strengthen the presence of contemporary art and disseminate its adventuresome spirit throughout the United States. Most of the gifts are going to college and university art galleries and to institutions outside the biggest cities, bringing the works of challenging younger artists to the attention of a broader public, and building the collections of the most active and vibrant of America’s smaller museums.

The majority of the pieces was made in the late 1980s and 1990s and is the work of younger artists. Among the 22 artworks donated to the Henry: Chris Finley’s World’s Greatest, 1994; Linda Hudson (Rousch)’s Red Devil, 1990; Alix Pearlstein’s Tissue Ball, 1995; Alan Rath’s Microwave II, 1989; George Stoll’s Untitled (Cast Away), 1995; and Peter Shelton’s Clearshirt, 1984-87.

“We are very grateful for this wonderful gift,” said Henry Director Richard Andrews. “The thoughtful selection of works around the theme of “conceptual sculpture” represents the energy and diverse interests of artists in the 1990s. This gift compliments the Henry’s other recent acquisitions by contemporary artists in new media and sculpture such as Gary Hill, Richard Long, Josiah McElheny, Gillian Wearing and Hilja Keading.”

The Nortons hope their gifts will inspire others to be inventive in supporting these museums.

“We thought the most interesting and beneficial thing we could do was to create mini-collections that would be organized in some meaningful way - by region, for example, or by subject matter - and donate them to lean but admirable arts institutions across the country,” Peter Norton explains. “We felt a well-conceived donation could give a boost to a program that was under way. When someone from outside steps in with a gift, it says to the community, ‘You have a worthwhile institution in your midst.’” ¶