Computer programmer, art collector, and philanthropist Peter Norton has donated 41 works by some of the most reputed contemporary artists to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
The donation is part of a series of gifts from Norton’s personal collection to university art museums throughout the country, with which the philanthropist seeks to foster the integration of visual arts in higher education.
“This is a historic addition to our collection that will significantly enhance our ability to actively engage students and diverse audiences with our collection here at the Rose,” Christopher Bedford, director of the Rose Art Museum declared. “This gift represents what Peter Norton’s collection is best known for: work that challenges definitions of racial and sexual identity and pushes the boundaries between media and genres.”
Norton’s donation features a selection of video, photography, painting, prints, sculpture, and mixed media works by A-list contemporary artists such as: Doug Aitken, Mark Dion, Nicole Eisenman, Omer Fast, Tom Friedman (see Tom Friedman, Fooling the I and the Eye at Luhring Augustine Bushwick), Anna Gaskell, Robert Gober (see MoMA’s Plot to Make Robert Gober a Household Name), Mike Kelley (see Hauser and Wirth to Represent Mike Kelley Foundation), Gabriel Kuri, Christian Marclay, Damián Ortega, Lari Pittman, Jason Rhoades, Allen Ruppersberg, Jim Shaw, Kara Walker (see Kara Walker on Her Bittersweet Colossus), Gillian Wearing (see Does This Statue Represent the Modern Family?), Christopher Wool (see Value of Christopher Wool Painting Rises 350,000 Percent), and Lisa Yuskavage.