New Gift of Living Legends “Portraits” Goes On View at the Norton Museum

Beginning in 2007, California-based photographer Robert Weingarten reached out to “living legends” with a request to create a portrait of each – without including their faces! Originally titled Portraits Without People, Weingarten asked them to send him a list of places, objects, events, and ideas to be included in a montage portrait that would capture their spiritual essence rather than their physical image.

Two dozen legendary artists, sports figures, authors, politicians, scientists, musicians, composers, religious leaders, and others replied, including Don Shula, Buzz Aldrin, Colin Powell, Quincy Jones, Itzhak Perlman, Sonia Sotomayor, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Joyce Carol Oates, and Stephen Sondheim.

Weingarten then set about photographing these elements and merging them into a single composition that would provide insight into who his sitters are, not simply what they look like. The result is the exhibition Living Legends: the Montage Portraits of Robert Weingarten, on view Thursday, July 17, through Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014.  Tim B. Wride, William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography, will provide insight into the exhibition at 6:30 p.m.during Art After Dark on July 17.

NFL Hall of Fame member and former Miami Dolphins Coach Don Shula, the local “living legend” featured in the set, is scheduled to discuss his portrait during Art After Dark on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014.

Completed over several years, Weingarten’s imposing digital montages — they are five feet wide and more than three feet high — created from the visual input provided by each of his subjects, are as much constructions of personalities and sensibilities as they are aesthetic compilations. “In both instances,” says Wride, “these montages reveal influences and traits behind, beneath, and beyond the masks of celebrity and notoriety.”  And while far from a likeness of his subjects, Weingarten considers these “portraits” to be a truer measure of identity than any facial impression.

The Norton is located at 1451 S. Olive Ave. in West Palm Beach, FL., and  is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Fridayand Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Closed on Mondays and major Holidays). General admission is $12 for adults, $5 for students with a valid ID, and free for Members and children ages 12 and under.

For additional information, please call (561) 832-5196, or visit www.norton.org.