| 09 March 2010
Flowers, (1964) acrylic, silkscreen on canvas by Andy Warhol.
The Norton Museum has an expanding collection of contemporary art, and, like many museums that evolve and grow from their initial purpose, it does not have a permanent exhibit space for it.
Although significant, it would be difficult to justify replacing any of Ralph and Elizabeth Norton’s original collection, or changing the focus of current gallery space, and the museum already underwent a significant expansion in 2003 with the addition of the Nessel Wing (Oh, that every museum should have such troubles as what to do with so many great donated works). The temporary solution: biannual exhibits providing a peek at some wonderful — yet otherwise hibernating — gems.
This is the case with Here Comes the Sun: Warhol and Art After 1960. The exhibit showcases 40 works by significant contemporary masters that include paintings, drawings, and sculpture. The Norton’s curator for contemporary art, Cheryl Brutvan, has organized the exhibit chronologically, providing a microcosm of an explosive period in the evolution of art when the very nature of art itself was questioned, tossed in the trash, and made over on completely different terms. Then its old self begin to emerge again through the cracks.
Some might argue that it’s been the most exciting period in the history of art because during this time the epicenter of the art world moved from Europe to our own backyard. Although merely a glimpse, many of the artists that ushered, or partook, in revolutionary post-modern movements, beginning with Andy Warhol, are here. Donald Sultan, Keith Haring, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, and Joan Mitchell all make an appearance to remind one of the resounding triumph of post-World War II American art.
Actually, it’s a shame these works aren’t on permanent view. Many are stunning, such as Donald Sultan’s The Granary (1988), a massive concoction of tar and acrylic paint. They epitomize the radical shift that engulfed the art world and brought us to where we stand now. Although vastly different in style and medium, the unifying element is that these works were completed when the definition of art was challenged, the future of the paintbrush was questionable, and conceptual thought trumped artistic mastery.
Robert Rauschenberg, Captiva, Florida (1988) enlarged photograph with acrylic and transfer by Gianfranco Gorgoni and Robert Rauschenberg.
Warhol, viewed by many as the messiah of post-modernism, and the man who married the fine arts and consumerism, rightly has his own wall at the entrance. The exhibit features his omnipresent Four Jackies (1964-1965), which depicts four images of the first lady. Then there is an assemblage of the Campbell’s soup cans that propelled Warhol to superstar status and marred the line between artist and celebrity. And it’s interesting to view Flowers (1964), the work that gave rise to issues regarding appropriation in art and resulted in a lawsuit from the original photographer, as well as referencing the hippie movement’s flower-child ideology.
There are four sculptures in the exhibit by Sol LeWitt, Anthony Caro, Nancy Graves, and Harry Bertoia that follow along on the progression procession. The Italian-born Bertoia’s minimalist Sunburst III (1968) stands delightfully near the exhibit’s entrance, seemingly inviting one to blow on it and make a wish. Then there’s Chilean-born sociopolitical artist Alfredo Jaar’s Untitled (Water) (1991-1994), which utilizes a light box and color transparencies to make a statement about reality and representation, and provides a hybrid of sculpture and photography.
Continuing with the hybrid theme, a large painting produced by Gianfranco Gorgoni and Robert Rauschenberg provides a witty glimpse into Raushchenberg’s day-to-day existence. Italian photographer Gorgoni came arrived in New York in 1968 to photograph and chronicle New York artists. There he befriended Rauschenberg. He captures the artist leisurely floating in his pool in Robert Rauschenberg, Captiva, Florida (1988). The image is hard to shake from the mind afterwards because of the intimate glimpse into Rauschenberg’s private world.
Moving from Rauschenberg to the aforementioned Sultan and Philip Pearlstein’s Untitled (1966), one views a mini-series on the reemergence of the “painterly” painters, those artists who seem inspired by the sheer physicality of the medium of paint and who gained momentum in the 1980s. Even after painting had been pronounced dead on multiple occasions, these “necrophiliacs” confirmed that the reports of death were, at best, greatly exaggerated.
Untitled, (2009) oil on canvas by Jacqueline Humphries.
It’s reassuring that the exhibit culminates with a work by Jacqueline Humphries. Her presence confirms that the Norton’s contemporary focus has merely just begun. The large, lyrically assaultive abstract painting Untitled (2009) inspires, and illustrates the beginning of an ever-evolving journey. Humphries’ work infuses abstraction with something fresh.
“The objective is to knit wildly varying perspectives into a unified space,” the artist has said. “Because of the way light reacts to the metallic paint, the paintings change as your physical relationship to them changes.”
Here Comes the Sun also knits “wildly varying perspectives into a unified space” with a procession of works primarily by American artists who leapfrog off of one another’s breakthroughs — and a few surprises thrown in, such as Picasso’s Harem Scene (1968). Although it’s a Cliff Notes version of the past 50 years, it’s impactful and it establishes the Norton’s commitment to contemporary art, which, hopefully, someday will have a permanent space.
Jenifer A. Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with American painting for the past 20 years.
Here Comes the Sun: Warhol and Art after 1960 in the Norton Collection is on view at the Norton Museum of Art until May 2. Hours for this exhibition are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults, $5 for visitors aged 13 through 2, and free for children under 13. For more information, call 561-832-5196, or visit www.norton.org.
| 25 February 2010
Large and Small Orchids With a Beetle (1875-90), by Martin Johnson Heade.
A "Wow!" is heard in the first room of the Flagler Museum's second-floor gallery.
It's uttered in response to Martin Johnson Heade's massive The Great Florida Sunset, one of the highlights of the Flagler's winter show, New World Eden: Artist-Explorers in the American Tropics, running now through April 18. It won't be the last.
In the mid-19th century, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who had spent years in Central and South America, realized visual artists were needed to capture the raw beauty of the region. This exhibit is the happy reunion of those who responded to his call in very personal ways: Heade, Frederic Edwin Church, John James Audubon, Louis Rémy Mignot, Hermann Herzog and many more.
Landscape in Ecuador (1859), By Louis Rémy Mignot.
They came, they saw, they conquered -- with the brush. Three rooms comprise the exhibit, each of them a different color: blue, purple and peach.
Not everything in that first blue room needs a pause at the bench.
If one work does, it's The Great Florida Sunset, the largest painting Heade (1819-1904) ever produced, and commissioned by his friend Henry Flagler for the Ponce de Leon Hotel.
It's an unusual work because of that simple flat land Heade chose to depict using bold colors and use of light. It's simple, not dull and specially not devoid of emotions. Other landscape artists turned the eye in search of a more robust, eventful scene as the one captured by Church for In the Andes. It's less intimate and more idealistic.
In the Andes (1878), by Frederic Edwin Church.
Although a scientist, Church (1826-1900) shared von Humboldt's notion that the tropics was a place touched by the hand of God. His paintings thus reflect the divine without neglecting realism. They show an artist busy with studying the place's natural history and geological forms.
Before you move on, spend some time with Charles de Wolf Brownell's Limestone Cliff of Bolondron, Cuba, 1860. That serene multi-color sky seems to have inspired the rooms' wall color. Brownell, a contemporary of Church and Heade, spent winters in Cuba, where the family owned sugar plantations. It's not that surprising, therefore, to find natives depicted in this painting.
Right below, an iguana fuses with the environment, just as we would expect in real life and one single white bird is seen flying west. These two singular elements suggest a shift toward the more Darwinian outlook: focus on the individual rather than in the grandiose general vista.
The second room reflects just how strong was the influence of the author of The Origin of Species.
Passion Flowers With Three Hummingbirds (1875), by Martin Johnson Heade.
Here it is the hummingbird and orchid works by Heade that steal the show. We find two of the surviving hummingbirds prints he created while in Brazil and for a series he had hoped would capture the birds' habits and life cycles. He was the first artist to paint them from life and desperately wanted to capture their jewel-like coloring but was apparently unsatisfied with the results he achieved.
Ironically, he exceeds our expectations, for how close can an artist really get to capturing the iridescent color of a live hummingbird? Very close, it turns out. Hummingbirds and Their Nest, an oval painting from 1863, combines a dreamy background with that incredible distinctive color of the bird that fascinated Heade.
![Orchid Brooch, Odontoglossum cervantesii (1889-96), by Tiffany and Co. [designer: George Paulding Farnham]](http://palmbeachartspaper.com/images/articles/orchidbrooch.jpg "Orchid Brooch, Odontoglossum cervantesii (1889-96), by Tiffany and Co. [designer: George Paulding Farnham]")
Orchid Brooch, Odontoglossum cervantesii (1889-96), by Tiffany and Co. [designer: George Paulding Farnham]
On the right side of the room his paintings get more elaborate. We find his orchids often paired with hummingbirds and beetles. One dramatic example is Large and Small Orchids with a Beetle, in which one big orchid (Cattleya labiata) is pushed to the foreground, to the point we feel we can reach it with our left hand. On the background, the plants yet to bloom appear to be moving. It's the perfect marriage of reality and imagination.
Complementing his paintings and Laura Woodward's watercolor takes on the red hibiscus flower are stuffed hummingbird displays, feather hats, beetle-inspired jewelry, orchid brooches and a sensational orchid vase from Tiffany and Co., which museum curator Tracy Kamerer said took many negotiations to bring to the exhibit.
The objects remind us that art manifests in our life in more than one way. It feeds fashion, literature, politics, religion. It appears in one medium and soon takes over the rest.
More jewelry, rare old books and romantic depictions of wilderness fill the third room of the exhibit. It is here that we find the bold Mignot, the romantic one, with an adorable, warm vision titled Tropical Sunset. In the first room he is seen mirroring his friend and travel partner, Church. One thing Mignot (1831-1870) did differently was to feature human interest elements -- bridges, people, paths -- in his works.
If Mignot remains obscure, a better-known 19th-century landscape painter who experimented a great deal with light effects and dared to add a personal touch to his work is George Inness (1825-1894). For a work that contains very little action -- a lone heron stands to the left-- Home of the Heron is surprisingly dreamy, highly mysterious and moody. This is a work to avoid if you feel down, but it's perfect for the adventurous soul and the meditative one.
Home of the Heron (1893), by George Inness.
While in this room, listen for another loud Wow! This time it belongs to Church: Twilight in the Tropics stands apart not just because of his darker tones but because of that romantic bright moonlight without which, we suspect, we could not see the magnificent vegetation. By now we are used to Church's daylight tropical vistas and big-picture style. But here he takes a closer look at individual plants and in doing so, a more Darwinian approach.
The intimacy of the painting, suggests an artist more in touch with his own essence or perhaps more devoted than ever to his work. The painting, whose lender is anonymous, actually dates to the time Church spent in Jamaica following the death of his two young sons in 1865.
Red Hibiscus (1890-1905), by Laura Woodward.
If you are touched by nature or touched by the art it inspires, this small, sweet exhibit will be worth your time. Plus, it doesn't take an entire morning or afternoon to introduce you to works so precious that, according to Kamerer, "nobody wants to lend them anymore."
This year marks the museum's 50th anniversary and museum organizers wanted to do something simple and close to Flagler. It's not the exhibit to see if you're looking for edgy: This is, peaceful, warm, gorgeous; at times wild, but not looking to shock.
Once here, be like one of many natural elements you'll see depicted. Be water or a flower or a hummingbird. Go with the flow.
Gretel Sarmiento is a freelance writer based in South Florida.
NEW WORLD EDEN: ARTIST-EXPLORERS IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS runs through April 18 at the Flagler Museum on Palm Beach. Admission is free with a ticket to the museum. Adults: $18; $10 for youth ages 13-18; $3 for children ages 6-12; and children under 6 admitted free. For more information, call 561-655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us.
Florida Seascape II (1890), by William Aiken Walker.
| 07 February 2010
The Adelson Galleries booth at the American International Fine Art Fair. (Photo by Katie Deits)
The recession "is a distant memory for art collectors," says David Lester, organizer of the 14th annual American International Fine Art Fair now taking place at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
"The 14th edition of AIFAF is shaping up to be the best yet," he said.
The convention center has been transformed into an array of architecturally interesting rooms in which more than 80 vetted exhibitors from 13 countries are showing off sculpture, paintings, etchings, drawings, suits of armor and rare books, among other things. The fair ends Monday evening.
Kevin Baxter, the fair's public relations coordinator for the event, said the fair got under way Wednesday with brisk sales. The Richard Green Gallery reported sales of more than $1 million in the first 24 hours, and the Surovek Gallery sold an Andrew Wyeth painting for $750,000, Baxter said.
Also, Lawrence Steigrad Fine Art sold a Bernhard Osterman painting for $225,000, and the 19th-Century Shop sold an edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass for $480,000, he said.
One of the opportunities for fair visitors -- buyers and gawkers alike -- is the chance to see pieces that have been socked away in private collections and galleries. Students of art history can see original drawings in which artists have explored their ideas, view works that were never published, and discover new artists and styles.
Ping Pong Players (c. 1944), by Milton Avery. (Photo by Katie Deits)
For instance, Ping Pong Players, painted circa 1944 by the American artist Milton Avery (1885-1965), clearly illustrates Avery’s simplification of line and shape. In this piece, Avery departs from his usual passive subjects, deftly depicting an action sequence. The small oil on board can be found at Thomas Colville Fine Art.
Adelson Galleries of New York, specialists in American art, attracted a multitude of visitors to its tastefully appointed booth. Works by Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, as well as South Florida's own Stephen Scott Young (b. 1957) are on display.
Young’s realist paintings, primarily in watercolor, have rocketed in price, as collectors appreciate not only his technical skill but also his ability to convey the character of his subjects, who are often of African descent. Tropical subject matter and humble architecture are also captured in his paintings and drybrush works.
The Sea, Watched, by Jamie Wyeth.
Third-generation painter Jamie Wyeth continues the family tradition of his father Andrew and his grandfather N.C. (also represented by Adelson Galleries), but raises the bar with his experimentation, exploring and courageously combining styles. The Sea, Watched is a recent 30-by-48-inch oil on canvas by Jamie. Adelson Galleries director Elizabeth Oustinoff said that the painting was created just after the death of Andrew Wyeth, who is represented at the shore with his father, N.C. In the foreground, Andy Warhol is pictured from the back, looking onto the scene.
"Jamie painted this in memory of the three people who were most influential in his life," Oustinoff said.
Cheetah and Cubs Lying on Rock, by Nick Brandt.
In the Holden Luntz exhibit at the far northeast corner of the fair, large, dramatically printed images by British photographer Nick Brandt stop visitors in their tracks. Brandt’s visions of Africa feature intimate photos of African animals, captured in a photojournalistic manner, naturally in their habitat.
In his artist’s statement, he describes his method: “I believe that being close to the animal makes a huge difference in the photographer’s ability to reveal its personality … I take my time and get as close as I can, inching my way to within a few feet of the animals.”
Adam and Eve, by Janine Janet.
Sculpture in the fair ranges from classical to abstract to the highly unusual Adam and Eve by Janine Janet (1913-2000), in which the artist appliquéd birch bark and roots onto unique 50-inch tall plaster forms. These works by the late French artist who collaborated with Jean Cocteau are in the Alebreton Gallery and are priced at $295,000.
Saint Margherite, by Salvatore Albano. (Photo by Katie Deits)
Visitors should make sure to see Saint Margherite, by Florence-born sculptor Salvatore Albano (1841-1893) in the Eduardo Cohen booth. Albano’s depiction of the saint in marble is on par with the best in classical sculpture, down to the minute detail of fabric and texture.
In the Browngrotta booth are several large tapestries, drawings and sculpture. Tom Grotta, who publishes books on artists, said Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz and the late Ohio artist Lenore Tawney "broke the barriers from craft to fine art in fiber art."
Two fiber tapestries by Magdalena Abakanowicz at Browngrotta Gallery.
Abakanowicz’s (b. 1930) work was in five Swiss Biennales and is sought after by collectors and museums alike, he said. Her purple tapestry Stadium Faktur shimmers with texture, depth and femininity. Tawney (1907-2007) is represented by wall hangings, collage and mixed media assemblage sculpture that is fascinating in its juxtaposition of materials and symbolism. For example, in Bird Boy, she combined an old, battered cloth mannequin torso and legs of a boy with a bird for a head.
The fair also features a lecture series with art scholars, dealers, museum curators and other art specialists. Visit the fair's Web site for dates and times.
The American International Fine Art Fair is open to the public from noon to 7 p.m. through February 7 and noon to 6 p.m. on February 8. General admission fees range from $25 for a one day pass, $35 for a multi-day pass or $45 and $55 respectively with a catalogue. For more details on fair activities, please visit the
AIFAF Website at www.aifaf.com or call (239) 949-5411.
| 01 February 2010
The Lamp (1890-91), drypoint, softground and aquatint, by Mary Cassatt.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) is known for pretty pictures of women and children, the kind of pictures that make people smile and sigh a lot.
But what many don’t know is that, as a working female artist living in late 19th-century Paris, she was a maverick. A driven woman who personally balked at convention, she remained single and childless, apparently by choice, so that she could pursue art as a career. Professionally, she kept her work fresh and original by working against the grain.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926).
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper, organized by the Adelson Galleries of New York for the Boca Raton Museum of Art, presents a small, yet significant, selection of her vast oeuvre. The 41 works, drawn from the collection of Ambroise Vollard, establish Cassatt as a skilled draftswoman and printmaker. Featured are drypoints, aquatints, drawings, and rare pastel counterproofs. These works show that Cassatt had an innate drive towards perfection and a commitment to learn avant-garde techniques.
As a woman, Cassatt seemed inherently inclined to live countercurrent to societal expectations. Born in Philadelphia to a wealthy family, at 15 she began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1863, at age 18, she announced her desire to move to Paris. Her father refused, and then acquiesced. She wanted European training and knew that recognition from the Paris art world was central to her future success.
The result: she ultimately became one of the few women – and the only American – embraced as a French Impressionist.
In this exhibit, devotees of Cassatt’s painting can see the depth of her skill at portraiture in the details of her prints and drawings. On the surface, the women and children are serene. Cassatt seemed captivated by motherhood, so it’s puzzling she never married and had children of her own. Her women are depicted with grace. But is their stillness serenity or boredom? Clearly, they exhibit a sense of duty. But are they happy, or just complacent?
We know that Cassatt was restless. One wonders if her bohemian lifestyle prompted her to see other women’s lives as restrictive, or if she was envious. Cassatt’s women fulfill societal expectations. They dress in beautiful, yet restrictive garments (this was the age of the corset). They drink tea. They devote themselves to motherhood. They gaze blankly at children who upstage them. Is this wry commentary?
The Fitting (1890-91), drypoint and aquatint, by Mary Cassatt.
Cassatt was unconventional in her technique, if not her subject matter. Many of the exhibited works are drypoint, which shows her distaste for mass production. Drypoint uses a sharp stylus or needle to scratch lines directly into a copper plate. It is easier for an artist to master than engraving because using the needle is closer to using a pencil. But one can only print a small amount from the plates. Artists such as Cassatt used drypoint because they preferred a small number of handmade images rather than hundreds of identical ones.
Atypically, she made multiple prints of the various stages of her work and used multiple plates prior to completion, as evidenced in The Mandolin Player (1889-90), which is seen here in the second of its seven states. But her methods attracted praise. She was gaining such notoriety as a skilled and unparalleled printmaker that in 1889 she participated in the first exhibition of the Société de Peintres-Graveurs – founded to promote original prints. The same year she also attended a massive exhibit of Japanese woodcut prints at the École des Beaux-Arts. This resulted in new stylistic exploration.
Inspired by the Japanese simplicity, clarity and bold color, Cassatt produced 10 aquatints known as her “group of 10.” Art historian and Cassatt scholar Adelyn Breeskin, remarked that these prints, “…now stand as her most original contribution ... adding a new chapter to the history of graphic arts ... technically, as color prints, they have never been surpassed.” What a delight, then, that three of the 10 are part of this exhibit: The Fitting (1890-91), The Lamp (1890-91) , and Afternoon Tea Party (1890-91)
Cassatt meticulously applied color to the copper plates for each print in order to control the final effect, which somewhat mirrors a woodcut. Other Japanese elements are notable in The Fitting. There is boldness and two-dimensionality to the composition. The forms are defined and delineated. One of the women is portrayed from behind — a Japanese perspective. Flat areas, rather than shading, control depth, and decorative patterns are brought to the foreground. The same qualities are evident in The Lamp, though here viewers see the exact influence of Japanese woodblock print colors, which are boldly geometric, yet muted.
The final prints in the exhibit are pastel counterproofs and confirm that by 1899 Cassatt had returned to her former style, evidenced in their shading, depth, and three-dimensionality. Counterproofs are made by placing a damp sheet of paper on top of a pastel and applying pressure.
Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother's Shoulder, No. 2, (1900), pastel counterproof on Japan paper, by Mary Cassatt.
Cassatt’s pastels were inspired by Degas. Like him, she was chiefly interested in figure compositions. In Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (1900), Cassatt’s linear pastel marks and lit-from-above-luminosity mimic Degas. And it was Degas who encouraged Cassatt to make counterproofs.
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper is intimately engaging because we are peeking into Cassatt’s mind. Seeing her prints in various stages of completion, we witness her process and focus. Her steadiness, progression, and patience shine through in her skillful renderings. But to gain this skill she persevered during an era that restricted women’s opportunities — preferring them to just look and act pretty.
Ironically, Cassatt’s depictions of this norm led to success, even though she herself didn’t comply. Knowing this adds another layer of brilliance to work that can certainly stand on its own.
Jenifer A. Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with American painting for the past 20 years.
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper is on view at The Boca Raton Museum of Art until April 11, 2010. Special hours for this exhibition are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Wednesdays 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for senior citizens (65 and older), $6 for students and $10 per person for group tours. For more information call 561-392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.
By the Pond (1896), drypoint and aquatint, by Mary Cassatt.
| 28 January 2010
The backglass art from the King of Diamonds pinball machine, made by Gottlieb in 1967 (artist: Art Stenholm; designer: Ed Krinsky)
As video killed the radio star, so did it kill the pinball machine.
And as a new exhibit of nostalgic Americana at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture in Delray Beach makes clear, the rise of computer technology and video have sent pinball machines down the road of forgotten Americana: the automat, the Victrola, the jukebox, the 1959 Chevy.
Pinball machines were in their heyday from the 1930s to the 1970s, found everywhere from beachside arcades to bars, pool halls and candy stores. The Cornell now has 28 of them on display from the collection of Florida resident R. Steve Alberts in an exhibit that runs through the end of March.
Today, collectors prize the machines not only for the game but for the original artwork on the side panels, gameboard and backglass. It’s worth spending some time at this exhibit if for nothing more than to be reminded of a simpler time and a pastime that has gone the way of the transistor radio.
This exhibit, with a good sampling of some of the best- known games, fills two large rooms and a part of a third. It is evident that the curators attempted not to recreate an arcade but to display the machines in a manner befitting a museum , and also to showcase them as a way to introduce the machines to a younger generation.
“The museum has recently refocused itself to reach a younger demographic and has renamed itself the Museum of Art and American Culture,” said Joe Gillie, Cornell’s executive director. “We believe this will help us come into our own as a museum and showcase exhibits that are relevant to our younger visitors."
Bally's Addams Family game, made in 1991, and the best-selling pinball machine of all time (artist: John Youssi; designer: Pat Lawler)
Of particular note are many of the most popular games of recent eras, such as the Williams Company’s Black Night, circa 1980, which has the first multi-level gameboard; the Haunted House with three levels, by Gottlieb; and the best-selling pinball machine of all time, The Addams Family, created in honor of the camp 1960s TV series after Williams and Bally merged in the late 1980s.
The primary audience for many of these games was adolescent males, and you can see why when you look at the artwork, much of which features buxom, curvaceous women, comic-book heroes such as Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, TV shows such as Star Trek and Bonanza, sports heroes such as the Harlem Globetrotters and Muhammad Ali and even a patriotic red, white and blue Evel Knievel with a blonde woman in hotpants and tight T-shirt.
The golden age of pinball is considered to be the decade from 1948-58, due in part to the Gottlieb Co. adding "flippers" to a game called Humpty Dumpty. Flippers gave the player some control over what had been purely a game of luck and transformed it into a game of luck and skill.
Before that, pinball had been considered something of a dodgy pastime. During Prohibition, pinball machines were blamed for helping lead young men into lives of gambling and crime. One picture in the exhibit makes that point: It's New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia smashing a pinball machine with a sledgehammer.
Despite their checkered past, pinball machines rebounded in popularity and secured their place in popular culture. The 1970s saw the second biggest advance in the industry since flippers. Solid state technology, computerization and electronic displays came into existence, making the older mechanical games obsolete.
English rockers The Who immortalized the Pinball Wizard in their 1969 rock opera, Tommy. An early 1970s machine named after it is here in the exhibit; actress Ann-Margaret, who starred in the film version, modeled for the backglass artwork.
Adding to the ambience of the exhibit is a collection of neon pinball and arcade signs on loan from the Puppetry Arts Center in Palm Beach as well as assorted pinball ephemera, such as pinball ornaments, arcade tokens and collector books and posters. A real treasure is the Coke machine piggy bank designed to replicate a miniature pinball machine, complete with moving parts.
The neon pinball and arcade signs could have been used to better effect by mounting them in a concentrated display, creating more of a tone and feel of an actual arcade and better evoking the feel of a lost era.
In the main exhibit hall, I recommend viewing the short mini-documentary, Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball: Year 2000. It is fascinating to watch as the Williams Co. designers and developers, as well-known in their industry as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs are in theirs, discuss their last-ditch attempts to save the endangered game and their efforts to compete in the new video marketplace.
Their vision resulted in the first combined video pinball machine called Revenge From Mars. The film runs about one hour, and if you can’t spend the whole time, at least try to listen and get a sense of an era of American inventiveness.
Just to the right of this film, sits the actual game that is the subject of the documentary, Revenge From Mars, developed by Williams before it closed down the pinball division of its company and concentrated on the business of making slot machines.
Unfortunately, viewing this machine in its static state is like watching a 3-D movie without the glasses. To see Revenge From Mars in all its glory and to understand the full impact of its innovation would require you to play the game, which isn't possible.
For me, the exhibit could reach another level by recreating more of the actual ambience (without the smoke, of course) of a traditional arcade and by having more than two machines available to play.
The backglass art for Darts, made by Williams in 1960 (artist: George Molentin; designer: Steve Kordek)
In its upstairs display, the museum does have two working machines that the public can play – the Williams F-14 Tomcat on loan from the personal collection of Christopher Lemon, and The Games, by Gottlieb, on loan from Joey Restivo and Metropolis Entertainment. The original cost? 1 play (five balls) for 25 cents.
Try it, and do more than test your skill. Reclaim a piece of Americana.
Jan Engoren is a freelance writer based in South Florida.
Pinball Palooza: The Art, The History, The Game runs through March 28 at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture at Old School Square in Delray Beach. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 general; $4 seniors and students 13-21, $2 for ages 5-12 and free for children under 5 years old. Delray Beach residents receive free admission the first Sunday of each month through April.
