The Norton Museum of Art will be the first in more than 75 years to showcase the sculpture of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney — an artist whose significant career saw major commissions throughout the United States and Europe in the early 20th century.
From her earliest classical sculptures to her more symbolic public monuments, and from her bleakly Realist depictions of the tragedy of World War I to her late Art Deco work, approximately 45 sculptures and drawings will offer viewers a comprehensive view of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s (1875-1942) artistic career, in an exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. Whitney had an important career as she created “striking and popular public art in her lifetime,” says Ellen Roberts, exhibition curator, “and her incisive depictions of her family, friends, and scenes from World War I are still captivating today.”
“The installation will move chronologically through Whitney’s career,” the museum continues, “and will include photographs of Whitney’s monuments in the United States, France, and Spain; her nurse’s uniform from World War I; and depictions of the artist and her sculpture by contemporaries such as painters Robert Henri and Guy Pène du Bois, sculptor Jo Davidson, and graphic artist L. Gauthier. Seen alongside her art, these materials will help to illustrate Whitney’s artistic ambitions and her achievement of them.”
“Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney: Sculpture” opens on January 25 and will continue through April 29. To learn more, visit the Norton Museum of Art.
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