Renowned for her generosity to artists and institutions, Eileen Harris Norton has built a collection and philanthropy actively focused upon the work of women, artists of color and her native California. Marking fifty years since Harris Norton’s first acquisition—a print purchased directly from Los Angeles artist Ruth Waddy in 1976—‘Destiny Is a Rose’ presents more than 80 works that together reflect Harris Norton’s prescient vision and commitment to social justice and learning.
Titled after a painting by Kerry James Marshall, ‘Destiny Is a Rose’ includes work by such artists as Mark Bradford, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons, Glenn Ligon, Marshall, Lorraine O’Grady, Adrian Piper, Betye Saar, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Jack Whitten, among others. In conjunction with ‘Destiny Is a Rose,’ Hauser & Wirth Publishers will release a catalogue featuring texts by Dr. Kellie Jones and curator Ingrid Schaffner, celebrating a collector who continues to be an agent of cultural change and growth.
About Eileen Harris Norton
A third-generation Californian, Eileen Harris Norton grew up in sight of Simon Rodia’s famous towers in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. She was twelve years old when the 1965 riots transformed her working class neighborhood into a flashpoint of the American Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. A graduate of the University of Southern California and University of California Los Angeles, she taught public school elementary English as a second language before co-founding, with her former husband Peter Norton, the software company that they later sold to Symantec.
Since the 1980s, Harris Norton’s reputation as a collector has developed in tandem with her philanthropy, providing direct support to a generation of museum curators—including Kellie Jones, Thelma Golden and Lowery Stokes Sims—who have all systemically changed who and how institutions collect. In 2014, she co-founded Art + Practice (A+P) with artist Mark Bradford and activist Allan DiCastro in Leimert Park, the historically Black Los Angeles neighborhood where Bradford grew up and first maintained a studio. Serving local youth transitioning from foster care and, through global partnerships, children experiencing displacement worldwide, A+P embodies her conviction that art can be a catalyst for care. Then, in 2019, she established the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation, extending her commitment to social and environmental justice through initiatives supporting education, families and the environment.
Photo: Eileen Harris Norton. Santa Monica, 2020. Courtesy the Eileen Harris Norton Collection. Photo: Joshua White