Get ready to don your first-class finery and take a step into a fabulous universe where fashion and street photography rule supreme, life size lofty fantasies unfold and reality pauses long enough for viewers to take a more intimate gaze. For the very first time ever, the public will be able to enjoy “A Personal View on High Fashion & Street Style: Photographs from the Nicola Erni Collection, 1930s to Now” from October 8, 2022-February 12, 2023 here in South Florida. We are fortunate enough to have access to the leading art institution in the region, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida’s cultural capital. With the winter bird season nearly upon us, bringing some of the wealthiest and most fashionable locals back to the South, this exhibition puts the rich and profound history of fashion and street photography on display in all its elegance. It is not to be missed.
Close to 300 images by more than 100 artists seem to always flirt with the outer edges of controversy and push the envelopes of fantasy, romanticism, and provocation. Examining how leading innovative photographers shaped and defined our style, aesthetics and culture is the thread weaving the entire collection together like a masterful tapestry. Seeing larger-than-life prints by quintessential artists like Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Helen Levitt, Vivian, Maier, Amy Arbus, Ellen von Unwerth, Cindy Sherman, Tommy Ton, Nadine Ijewere, Albert Watson, Esther Haase and others is both breathtaking and inspiring.
“The Nicole Erni Collection is a globally celebrated collection that brings together the divergent worlds of fashion and street photography, exploring glamour and style through the lens of some of the greatest photographers of the last century,” said Ghislain d’Humières, Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO of the Norton Museum of Art. “The presentation, demonstrates the Norton’s commitment to bringing important, major exhibitions spanning diverse genres and media to Palm Beach County and the region.”
A Personal View on High Fashion & Street Style consciously delves into the themes of origins. Origins of fashion photography, origins of established beauty norms, origins of self-confident and increasingly independent women, origins of body shape ideals, origins of supermodels, origins of the innovations of the digital photography revolution and the origins of sexually charged imagery.
The Swiss based Nicola Erni’s extensive art collection not only includes fashion and street photography, it is also well known for its meticulous selection of contemporary art with works by Jean Michel Basquiat, Elmgreen & Dragset, Rashid Johnson, Duane Hanson, Beatrice Milhazes, Julian Schnabel and Andy Warhol. Having her collection on view is creating a unique opportunity for the masterfully creative bug to bite the students of Palm Beach County. In conjunction with the exhibition, the theme for the Norton’s 2022-2023 annual Chris and Bernard Marden Community Gallery student exhibition will be “street fashion photography”. Through this initiative, Palm Beach County middle and high schools have the opportunity to organize their own competitions and submit selected student artwork to the Norton. A Norton-organized jury will determine a selection of works for display in the museum’s Marden Community Gallery, and an accompanying online exhibition titled Dress Codes: Photographing Cultures and Identities through Fashion beginning December 16, 2022.
Visiting the world class, state-of-the-art galleries and sculpture garden at the Norton Museum of Art can be as easy as a train ride away (VIP lounge and prepaid Tesla roundtrip rides included of course). Check out Brightline to book your leisurely ride from Miami or Fort Lauderdale and make plans to spend the day enjoying the lavish lifestyle of art and culture right here in South Florida.
