Norton Museum of Art
1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach, 561/832-5196, Norton.org
The measure of a museum isn't just the quality of the traveling exhibitions it mounts on a periodic basis but the shows it can conjure at any time from its permanent collection. The Norton succeeds on all counts. This year's exhibits included French and American impressionist paintings by artists such as Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent; serial paintings by Henri Matisse; mixed-media photo assemblages by Betty Saar; and huge, blood-red evangelical paintings by Palm Beach resident Damien Hirst. Along with the shows that come and go, the Norton makes a day at the museum memorable with its permanent exhibit of works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Joan Miró and Paul Klee, among many others, as well as a kaleidoscopic Dale Chihuly installation of sea life in a pavilion ceiling that is best appreciated lying down. The building's central atrium is itself a work of art with its wavy, spiral staircase that coils up three floors toward a skylight.
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