Expressions of Cameroon Art: The Franklin Collection

Arts & Photography

Muchnic, Suzanne

Northern, Tamara

Franklin, Valerie

Salmons, Jill

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Univ of Washington Pr

In 1931, at age 24, Norton Simon invested $7,000 in a bankrupt juice bottling plant. This investment grew into Hunt Foods, which soon ruled California's canned tomatoes empire. With a rare ability to transform laggard companies into highly profitable enterprises, Simon went on to amass a huge fortune. Then, in his late forties, he turned to art collecting and built one of the greatest private collections since World War II. Suzanne Muchnic has written an intimate and very readable biography of Norton Simon and at the same time provides a thoughtful overview of Los Angeles culture in the postwar years. The tycoon-turned-art-collector was accused of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, but he pursued art with passion. A shrewd negotiator, obsessed by power, Simon astonished the art world with acquisitions ranging from Old Masters to Impressionists to rare Indian and Asian artworks. Searching for an appropriate home for his 12,000-strong collection, Simon courted (and disappointed) numerous California museums before eventually taking over the floundering Pasadena Art Museum, now the Norton Simon Museum. Simon's influence extended beyond the business and art world: as a University of California regent he challenged funding cutbacks, sympathized with student activists, and opposed the firing of Angela Davis. His personal life was equally tumultuous and included a difficult divorce, his 31-year-old son's suicide, a whirlwind courtship and marriage to actress Jennifer Jones, and a run for the U.S. Senate. Simon died in 1993, and during his last ten years Suzanne Muchnic was the only person to whom he granted an interview. Odd Man In reveals a man very much of his time—brilliant, anxious, powerful, and caught up in the rapid change and cultural ambiguity of Southern California in the second half of the century.

Odd Man In: Norton Simon and the Pursuit of Culture

History & Criticism

University of California Press

In LACMA So Far: A Portrait of a Museum in the Making, Suzanne Muchnic draws on decades of experience as a Los Angeles Times arts writer to relate the complicated story of how the Los Angeles County Museum of Art emerged as the largest art museum in the western United States.
Her in-depth reporting, fleshed out with private interviews and archival research, offers a lively tale about the convergence of art, money, people, and buildings that has produced a museum perpetually in the making. Suzanne Muchnic, a longtime art writer for the Los Angeles Times and contributor to many art publications, has followed the evolution of Los Angeles’s art scene since the 1970s and traveled widely to report on important artists, museums, exhibitions, and cultural issues. She won first prize for arts and entertainment reporting from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club in 1993. Her critically acclaimed biography, Odd Man In: Norton Simon and the Pursuit of Culture, was awarded the 2002 Donald Pflueger Local History Award of the Historical Society of Southern California. She is also the author of Helen Lundeberg: Poetry Space Silence, published by Louis Stern Fine Arts.

LACMA So Far: A Portrait of a Museum in the Making

Angel City Press

Martha Alf Retrospective an Exhibition

Felicie Inc

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Books by Muchnic, Suzanne