Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach (In Pictures)

Summer time in South Florida can really suck. I mean, at some point in the day (and usually at numerous points) it’s gonna pour. And when it’s not pouring, it looks like it’s gonna pour any minute. Oh, and in the rare instance when it’s actually not pouring or looking like it’s gonna pour, it’s as humid as all hell. So when we plan a family activity in the summer, we keep it indoors.

That’s what brought us to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. We love checking out artwork, whether it be in a museum or on the streets of Wynwood, Miami or Bushwick, Brooklyn. We’ve been to the American Museum of Natural History & MOMA in NYC and we also stopped by the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. But we had never visited a museum here in Florida until this past weekend.

The Norton Museum of Art is actually the largest art museum in Florida and features a permanent collection of masterpieces by artists such as Picasso, Monet and Matisse. The museum was founded by Ralph Hubbard Norton (1875–1953), who retired as the president of Acme Steel in 1940, and his wife, Elizabeth Calhoun Norton (1881–1947) and opened to the public in February of 1941.

It made for a great way to spend a few summer hours with the family (it rained most of the day, of course). Here are a few pics…enjoy.

“Ruby Green Singing” (1928) by American artist James Chapin

Checking out “Soundsuit” by American artist Nick Cave (no relation to The Bad Seeds)

Assorted Barbie dolls from their current “Wheels and Heels” exhibit

Bodhisattva Maitreya, Northern Wei Dynasty (386-535), Chinese Art

Man and Woman Playing Polo, Tang Dynasty (618-906), Chinese Art

“Madame Le Comte” (1730) by French sculptor Guillaume Coustou the Elder

“Madonna and Child in Glory” (1563) by Italian painter Giovanni Francesco Bezzi aka Nosadella

Mrs. Perez admiring “Lady Doyle” (1804) by English painter Sir Thomas Lawrence

“Saint Jerome in his Study” (1530) by Flemish painter Joos van Cleve

American sculptor Paul Manship’s “Mother and Child” (1918) is the centerpiece of the museum’s Elsie & Marvin Dekelboum Gallery

Adrian Fisher’s “Theseus Slaying the Minotaur” (1997) is one of the finest decorative brick pavement mazes in the Americas; it spans 64 x 44 feet outside the museum.

“PAN” by French sculptor Eugene Desirée Piron

“Diana” by American sculptor Paul Manship

“New York Mural” (1932) by American artist Stuart Davis

The girls uploading pics in the museum’s spacious lobby…

So, if you happen to find yourself looking for something to keep you out of the South Florida heat, humidity and sudden downpours, check out the Norton Museum of Art.