Ann Weaver Norton (née Ann Weaver; May 2, 1905 – February 2, 1982) was an American sculptor, educator, and writer of children's books.
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Early life and education
Norton was born in Selma, Alabama, the daughter of William Minter Weaver II and Edith Vaughan Weaver. She showed early talent for art, most likely influenced by her two aunts, Clara Weaver Parrish and Rose Pettus Weaver, who were artists themselves. Weaver Parrish had studied at the Art Students League in New York City under William Merritt Chase, exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1900 and worked with stained glass at the Tiffany Studios. She later returned to Alabama, organizing exhibitions of southern women artists. Rose Weaver most likely studied in New York as well, and had a career as a sculptor in wood.
After graduating from high school, in an attempt to earn money to attend art school Ann Norton wrote and illustrated three children's books – Frawg (1930), Boochy's Wings (1931), and Pappy King (1932) – while vacationing at the family summer home near Sardis. She attended Smith College. In her senior year, Norton was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude in 1927.
In 1928, Norton was admitted to the National Academy of Design. She attended classes there for three years, studying under Charles Louis Hinton, Alice Harold Murphy, Leon Kroll, Carl Thomas Anderson, and Charles Keck. She held two scholarships during this time, which were obtained by passing certain examinations. During the summers she took classes at the Grand Central School of Art from George John Lober. In the spring of 1930, Norton attended the Art Students League of New York, studying under Homer Boss. In 1932, she was admitted to Cooper Union where the education was free but admission competitive, and studied sculpture for three and a half years under Charles Rudy. At Cooper Union, Norton won numerous awards in figure modeling and sculpture composition. She also was awarded two traveling fellowships - an Art and Archeology Scholarship from the Institute for International Education and another fellowship to study garden sculpture in Italy and England. When she returned to the States, Norton sought out a few sculptors whose work reflected her developing style. One was John Hovannes, who taught at the Art Students League and Cooper Union. Another was Alexander Archipenko, a sculptor who had been part of an artists' group in Paris called Section d'Or, which included Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Georges Braque and others. In all, Norton spent five years as an apprentice under Archipenko and Hovannes, among others. She received Carnegie Traveling Fellowships in 1935 and 1940.
Career
In the 1930s, views on art were changing radically. A new generation that came of age after the first world war were questioning the validity of the traditional institutions of culture and aesthetics. A show at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1929 featured works by Picasso, Matisse and Braque among many other European artists who were exploring new techniques of cubism and abstraction. In sculpture, the traditional method of starting with a model and then hiring a craftsman to create the sculpture was shifting in some circles to the method of "direct carving". This was a process by which artists used their own chisel and mallet to create their works. Constantin Brâncuși was a leading proponent of this process; other sculptors practicing this method were William Zorach and Archipenko. Using this process, their sculpture took on a more abstracted, non-literal representation. Norton greatly admired these sculptors, and her drawings at the time show a shift towards more abstract and simple lines. While her sculptures at the time demonstrate a continued interest in figurative art, the subject matter shifted from the traditional focus on heroic figures to real people living everyday lives.
Norton was having some success in her field during this time. She showed Negro Head at MOMA in 1930; she was included in a book Art in America in Modern Times, published in 1934, as one of 20 women "doing very good work"; and she exhibited at a group show at the Jacques Seligmann Galleries in 1934, the Clay Club Galleries in 1939, the National Sculpture Society in 1940, and the Whitney Museum in 1941. Through her interest in making garden sculpture, most likely influenced by her traveling fellowship in Italy and England, she received a commission in 1939 for a statue of St. Francis for a private garden. Apparently it was a success, as she received a glowing letter from the owner for her skill.
However, other commissions were not forthcoming, and despite her successes, Norton realized she needed to find alternate means of financial support, and turned to teaching. She applied and was accepted for a position teaching sculpture at the Norton Gallery and School of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, starting in early 1943. With this additional income, Norton was able to work with the Anton Basky Foundation in New York City to cast some of her modeled work, including a major series called Casualties, with four bronze sculptures, produced between 1944 and 1947. Several more sculptures were created in the late 1940s, portraying everyday subject matter such as people cutting hair, children pumping water, kneeling figures and others.
Death and legacy
Ann died in 1982. She was buried at Live Oak Cemetery in Selma. After her death, the Norton Gallery of Art presented a major retrospective of her work in 1983. Several exhibitions of her works were held in subsequent years.
Norton was the subject of a biography, Monumental Dreams: The Life and Sculpture of Ann Norton, published in 2014.
Norton was known for her "megalith" sculptures, vertical constructions of handmade bricks or wood. Over 100 of these works are displayed at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens on the grounds of her former home in West Palm Beach. Besides the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, other collections which own examples of her work include the Detroit Institute of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, and the Musée Rodin. In addition, the Norton Museum of Art owns four examples of her work - Seated Figure, Casualties IV, Draped Figure, and Haircutting.