The Art of Jewelry on Exhibit at the Norton

By Gerry Barker

One-of-a-kind jewelry creations, the “hidden mothers” of 19th century portraiture, hand-blown glass tubes embedded in a sea of sand — all that and more await visitors to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach this summer.

Diane Venet with her exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art (Photos Courtesy of the Norton Museum. Let’s start with art at a small scale — “Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection,” featuring over 150 pieces of jewelry created by some of the most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Paris-born Ms. Venet, married to sculptor Bernar Venet, assembled this collection over several decades, and features works by Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, Frank Stella, Salvador Dali, Man Ray and many others.

Quoting from the press release: “The story of this collection is largely that of my friendships in the art world over the past forty years,” said Venet. “In my rather itinerant life, this collection of jewelry is thus an intimate museum that I can take everywhere with me, and the treasure trove which I can find on my return home. I am so honored that the Norton Museum has invited me to share these special pieces with a larger public.”

From left: Salvador Dali brooch, Diane Venet’s wedding ring, Man Ray driving mask

(Courtesy of Norton Museum of Art)

Left: Jewelry by Niki de Saint Phalle, and her original sculpture, center; Pablo Picasso charm, right

(Courtesy of Norton Museum of Art; center photo by Gerry Barker)

You can credit her husband for helping fuel her interest in starting her collection. For their wedding, he created a wrap-around, silver ring for her, which is included in the exhibit.

Museum-goers will appreciate the extra elements the Norton has included. For the first time, companion artworks by the same artists are featured alongside their jewelry. There’s also a interactive component. Visitors can stand behind tall, plexiglass cases and see how some of the jewelry would look on them. In another example, you can place your hand under a plexiglass case and “try on” an Andy Warhol watch.

Among the highlights is a gold mask crafted by Man Ray, a charm by Picasso and a surreal brooch by Dali. Also among the pieces is a gold ring resembling a vinyl record, made by Yoko Ono, engraved with “Imagine Peace,” a tribute to John Lennon, her late husband.

(Photos by Gerry and Pamela Barker)

“Artists’ Jewelry” is on exhibit at the Norton through Oct. 5, 2025.

Moving from the small to the very large, enter Laddie John Dill’s world of light and space with his “EST (Eastern Standard Time).” Occupying one of the Norton’s largest galleries, it utilizes 300 bags of sand, interspered with argon and neon, hand-blown glass tubes, creating a surreal, blue-glowing landscape.

“The presentation of EST (Eastern Standard Time) at the Norton is a unique opportunity for South Florida audiences to experience work by a pioneer of the Light and Space movement, something that has been historically celebrated predominantly on the West Coast,” said Ghislain d’Humières, Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO in the museum’s press release. “This immersive experience will make viewers feel as though they are being transported to another world.”

(Photos Courtesy of the Norton Museum of Art)

Drawing inspiration from California’s sun and surf, the minimalist Light and Space movement emerged in the 1960s, Dill started exhibiting his “Light Sentences” series in 1971. His merger of nature and technology evoke a sense of wonder in the viewer.
“EST” is at the Norton through Oct. 19, 2025.

(Courtesy of the Norton Museum of Art)

Today, when virtually everyone has a state-of-the-art camera in their pocket thanks to smart phones, we can scarely imagine what taking a photo was like in the 19th century. That topic is explored in the museum’s “Veiled Presence: The Hidden Mothers and Sara VanDerBeek,” at the Norton through Nov. 30, 2025.

In the Victorian era, to take a portrait meant the subject had to remain perfectly still, with long exposure times that ranged as long as 15 minutes. When the subject was a baby, or a young child, their mothers or caregivers had to hold them steady. To keep from having the mothers in the picture, they were covered by textiles, obscured by furniture or blotted out entirely. And yet, in this collection of photos, evidence of their ghostly presence remains.

To give these “hidden mothers” a voice, the exhibit incorporates work by contemporary photographer Sara VanDerBeek, addressing themes of “motherhood, labor and grief.”

(Photos by Gerry Barker)

“For more than a century, these figures’ stories have remained untold, shrouded in the photographer’s studio work,” said Lauren Richman, the Norton’s William and Sarah Ross Soter Senior Curator of Photography in a press release. “Pairing these vernacular photographs with works by Sara VanDerBeek offers an opportunity to imagine a narrative for these mostly woman subjects, and reflect upon broader themes of visibility, labor, and care, and their contemporary form.”

Also included in the exhibit are elements employed by the photographers of the day: A chair with a head brace and the proverbial “Watch the birdie” bird prop.

(Photos by Gerry Barker)

Photography is also highlighted in another of the museum’s exhibits — “Blur/ Obscure/ Distort: Photography and Perception,” which explores disrupting our sense of reality through creative phtographic techniques. It runs through Aug. 24, 2025.

The Norton Museum of Art is located at 1450 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. Get more information about these and other exhibits on their website.