The Norton Simon Museum, which comprises more than 11,000 objects, contains a significant permanent collection which is highly regarded internationally. The museum itself does not own the works it displays; instead, most of the art is on long-term loan from The Norton Simon Foundation and the Norton Simon Art Foundation, which each own different groups of artworks. As of 2014, their public filings placed the combined fair-market value of the artworks at about $5 billion. The museum makes relatively little effort to expand the collection amassed by its founder, but it still receives gifts. However, no more than 800 or 900 of those pieces are on display at any one time. The museum also mounts temporary exhibitions that focus on a particular artist, an art movement or artistic period, or art that was created in a specific region or country. For more than three decades after it was founded in 1975, the Norton Simon Museum maintained a no-loans policy. In 2007, the board agreed to circulate select works to museums including the
National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., saying it wanted the museum to become better known. In 2009, it entered into a reciprocal loan agreement with the
Frick Collection in New York City.
Asian art ,
India, c. 900 CE The museum has a collection of art from
South Asia and
Southeast Asia, with examples of this region's sculptural and painting traditions. On display are holdings from India,
Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet,
Cambodia and
Thailand, as well as selected works from
Afghanistan,
Myanmar,
Bangladesh,
China,
Indonesia,
Sri Lanka,
Vietnam, and
Japan. The collection is particularly rich in art from the Indian subcontinent, including monumental stone sculpture from the
Kushana and
Gupta periods, and a remarkable group of
Chola bronzes from southern India. Selections of the museum's
Rajput paintings from India, and
thangkas, or
Buddhist religious paintings, from
Tibet and
Nepal are well represented. The significant collection of Japanese
woodblock prints includes objects that were formerly in the collection of
Frank Lloyd Wright. File:'Jina Suparsvanatha' from Karnataka, c. 900, schist, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|'
Jina Suparsvanatha' from Karnataka,
India, c. 900 File:'Digambara Yakshi Kushmandini' from Karnataka, India, c. 900, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|'Digambara Yakshi
Kushmandini' from Karnataka, India, c. 900 File:8 Miraculous Events of the Buddha's Life from Myanmar, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|8 Miraculous Events of the
Buddha's Life from Myanmar, 13th century File:Altarpiece with multiple Jinas, c. 1500, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|
Jain chaubisi File:Water spout from central Java, 15th century, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|Water spout, central
Java, 15th century File:'Hindu Goddess' from Nepal, c. 1700, gilt bronze, Norton Simon Museum.JPG|'Hindu Goddess' from Nepal, c. 1700, gilt bronze
European art: 14th–16th centuries Masterworks of the
Early Renaissance, the
High Renaissance and
Mannerism make up the museum's extensive collection of 14th- to 16th-century European art. Exquisite works by
Paolo Veneziano and
Giovanni di Paolo, and an exceptional
Guariento di Arpo altarpiece, anchor the museum's collection of
gold-ground panel paintings.
Jacopo Bassano,
Botticelli,
Filippino Lippi and
Raphael are represented by rich oil paintings of religious scenes. Also represented are magnificent examples of such Northern European masters as
Lucas Cranach the Elder,
Dieric Bouts and
Hans Memling. The portraits of
Giorgione,
Giovanni Bellini and
El Greco reflect the great diversity of subject matter in the collection. Ownership of Cranach's
Adam and
Eve is disputed due to their history as Nazi loot.
European art: 17th–18th centuries ,
Self-portrait, c. 1640 The museum's early
Baroque paintings from Italy and Spain are represented by such noted artists as
Guido Reni,
Guercino,
Murillo and
Zurbarán. The Northern Baroque collection is profoundly expressed in the works of
Peter Paul Rubens. The remarkable group of 17th-century Dutch genre, portrait and landscape paintings is crowned with three portraits by
Rembrandt. Capping off the 17th century are Flemish and German still lifes, and religious landscapes by the French masters
Claude Lorrain and
Nicolas Poussin. The French component of the 18th century collection contains paintings by
Watteau,
Fragonard and
Boucher, while Italy is represented with capriccios and historic glimpses into the daily life of Rome and Venice with works by
Longhi,
Pannini,
Guardi,
Canaletto, and
Tiepolo.
European art: 19th century ,
The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in the Snow, 1885, (F194) The museum's paintings by
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and
Francisco de Goya mark the beginning of the 19th century and lead to superb examples of mid-century Realism executed by
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,
Gustave Courbet and
Édouard Manet. The museum has the most significant collection of
Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist art in Southern California. Works by
Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir and
Edgar Degas, who alone is represented by over one hundred works of art, are displayed alongside works by Vincent van Gogh,
Paul Cézanne and
Paul Gauguin. Complementing these works are Auguste Rodin's monumental bronze sculptures, displayed in the museum's front garden. Outstanding paintings by
Édouard Vuillard and
Pierre Bonnard lead to the doorstep of 20th-century Modernism.
Modern art The museum has an extensive collection of
Modern art, with seminal works by
Pablo Picasso,
Georges Braque,
Henri Matisse, and
Diego Rivera on permanent view. The "
Galka Scheyer collection of works by the
Blue Four artists" boasts paintings and works on paper by
Paul Klee,
Lyonel Feininger,
Alexei Jawlensky, and
Wassily Kandinsky. Scheyer, a German art dealer and collector who had represented these artists and settled in L.A. in 1925, left 450 works by the Blue Four and other modern artists (plus an archive of 800 documents) to the Pasadena Art Institute after plans had failed to give them to
UCLA.
Contemporary art The collection of Post-War
Contemporary Art, from the Norton Simon Museum's acquisition of the Pasadena Art Museum's building and collections, is noteworthy for its strength in collage, assemblage and sculpture, including works by
Joseph Cornell,
Robert Rauschenberg,
Louise Nevelson, and
Ed Kienholz.
Pop Art, and
Minimal Art are represented by
Roy Lichtenstein,
Andy Warhol,
Donald Judd, and
Robert Irwin. Californian art from the 1950s through the 1970s is a particular strength, with artwork by
Sam Francis,
Richard Diebenkorn,
Jay DeFeo,
Ronald Davis,
Larry Bell,
Edward Ruscha,
Kenneth Price,
Charles Arnoldi, and
Ed Moses,
Color Field painting and
Lyrical Abstraction are represented by
Kenneth Noland,
Ronnie Landfield,
Frank Stella,
Helen Frankenthaler, and Kenneth Showell.
Sculpture Major sculptors of the 19th century and early 20th century, including
Aristide Maillol,
Constantin Brâncuși,
Henry Moore,
Barbara Hepworth, and
Isamu Noguchi, are represented by works in bronze, lead and marble sculptures throughout the galleries and outside the museum, including the Front Garden and Colorado Boulevard lawn, as well as the extensive Sculpture Garden grounds. == Management ==