Ann Weaver Norton facts for kids

Ann Weaver Norton (born May 2, 1905 – died February 2, 1982) was an American sculptor and writer. She also wrote books for children.

Ann Norton was born in Selma, Alabama. Her two aunts, Clara Weaver Parrish and Rose Pettus Weaver, were artists, and they likely inspired her. Clara Weaver Parrish studied art in New York City and even showed her work in Paris. Rose Weaver was a sculptor who worked with wood.

After high school, Ann wrote and illustrated three children's books to earn money for art school: Frawg (1930), Boochy's Wings (1931), and Pappy King (1932). She then went to Smith College, graduating with high honors in 1927.

Becoming a Sculptor

In 1928, Ann Norton started studying at the National Academy of Design for three years. She also took classes at the Grand Central School of Art and the Art Students League of New York. In 1932, she was accepted into Cooper Union, where she studied sculpture for three and a half years. She won many awards there for her sculptures.

Ann also received special fellowships to travel and study art in Italy and England. When she returned, she learned from famous sculptors like John Hovannes and Alexander Archipenko. Archipenko was part of an important art group in Paris that included Pablo Picasso. Ann spent five years learning from these artists.

New Ideas in Art

In the 1930s, art was changing a lot. Artists were trying new ways to create. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) showed works by artists like Picasso, who used new styles like cubism.

In sculpture, a new method called "direct carving" became popular. This meant artists used their own tools, like chisels, to carve their sculptures directly. Famous sculptors like Constantin Brâncuși and Archipenko used this method. Their sculptures often looked more abstract, meaning they didn't look exactly like real life. Ann Norton admired these artists, and her own drawings started to show simpler, more abstract lines. While her sculptures still showed people, she began to focus on everyday life instead of just heroic figures.

Early Success and Teaching

Ann Norton started to gain recognition for her work. She showed her sculpture Negro Head at MOMA in 1930. A book called Art in America in Modern Times (1934) even listed her as one of 20 women doing "very good work." She also exhibited her art at several galleries, including the Whitney Museum in 1941.

In 1939, she received a special request to create a statue of St. Francis for a garden. This was a success!

However, Ann realized she needed a steady job, so she decided to teach. In 1943, she became a sculpture teacher at the Norton Gallery and School of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. With this income, she was able to cast some of her sculptures in bronze, including a series called Casualties (1944-1947). She also created sculptures showing everyday scenes, like people cutting hair or children pumping water.

Many art collectors in Palm Beach noticed her work and bought her sculptures. The director of the Norton Gallery also bought two of her pieces.

Marriage and New Beginnings

While teaching, Ann met Ralph Norton, who founded the Norton Gallery. He was a successful businessman and a major art collector. He created the Norton Gallery in 1935 to display his art and to be a place for art education.

Ann and Ralph became friends, often talking about art. After his first wife passed away, Ralph asked Ann to marry him, and they married in 1948.

After marrying, Ann stopped teaching to focus entirely on her art. Ralph built a special studio for her behind their home in West Palm Beach. She continued to create sculptures, including Jitterbug Dancers and Mother and Child.

Creating Monumental Art

Just five years later, Ralph Norton died in 1953. After his death, Ann began to create very large sculptures, known as "monumental sculpture." She was inspired by her travels to the western United States, where she saw huge rock formations that looked like figures.

She started a group of seven large figures as a memorial to her husband. The tallest one was twelve feet high and carved from pink Norwegian granite. This project was very difficult and took ten years to finish! These large sculptures ended up in her own gardens behind her house.

After traveling to India, Ann's art became even more abstract. She started working with new materials, like heart cedar wood from the Pacific Northwest. She made hundreds of sketches, which led to her wooden sculptures of the 1970s, called Gateways.

Later, she began working with brick. She used rare pink Mexican brick to create a giant sculpture, forty-seven feet long, that looked like a mountain range or a sea creature. She also made seven tall, vertical sculptures, twenty feet high, from red handmade North Carolina brick. These were placed in her garden, appearing suddenly from behind dense plants.

Exhibitions and Recognition

Ann Norton had many solo art shows in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1968, she had two shows at the Bodley Gallery in New York. One show featured her bronze and brass sculptures, and the other showed smaller models (called maquettes) of her large garden sculptures.

In 1969, her brass and bronze sculptures were finally shown at the Norton Gallery of Art. She also had solo exhibitions in Palm Beach. The Musee Rodin in Paris even included one of her sculptures in an exhibition. In 1980, a gallery held a successful exhibition of her cedar Gateways.

The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens

In her later years, Ann worked on her two-acre property, planting native trees and creating a special space. In 1977, she was diagnosed with leukemia, which made her think about the future of her art. She wanted to create a "garden museum" – a place where her sculptures would be mixed with trees, bushes, water, and wildflowers. It would also have space for exhibitions and discussions about art.

In 1980, the creation of the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens was announced. A famous British garden designer, Sir Peter Smithers, helped her design the gardens. He created a plan that included many rare palm trees, making a dense landscape that would "hide and reveal" her sculptures, just as Ann imagined.

Ann Norton passed away in 1982. She was buried in Live Oak Cemetery in Selma. After her death, the Norton Gallery of Art held a big show of her work in 1983.

Legacy

Ann Norton is known for her "megalith" sculptures, which are tall structures made of handmade bricks or wood. Over 100 of these works are displayed at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, which is located at her former home in West Palm Beach.

Besides the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, her work can also be found in other important art collections, including the Detroit Institute of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, and the Musée Rodin. The Norton Museum of Art also owns four of her sculptures: Seated Figure, Casualties IV, Draped Figure, and Haircutting.