west palm beach

Sorolla and the Sea at the Norton in West Palm Beach

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Maybe because the Joaquín Sorolla house and museum is around the corner from my family home in Madrid, Sorolla was the first painter I connected to. Maybe it was his Mediterranean scenes that took me to my own Summers in the Med. Whatever it might have been, Sorolla has a special place in my heart.

When I am in Madrid, I often sneak into the garden of the Sorolla house museum to read, and occasionally I will go inside to visit the paintings like old friends (you can read about that here).

So when I learned the Norton Museum was hosting an exhibition to complement their existing (huge) Sorolla painting, I had to see it.

It did not disappoint. Most of the paintings are on loan from the Hispanic Society in New York City which commissioned many paintings from Sorolla. The exhibit includes some drafts of paintings, a bronze sculpture from his dear friend and paisano Benlliure -the marble one is in the garden in Sorolla’s house, even one of Sorolla’s palettes!

Sorolla is known as the painter of light, leaving behind the Impressionists, and creating a space of his own, beyond labels.

If you are in the Palm Beach area you should see it, you are welcome.

The adventures of travel; an example.

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The previous post was a generic “get out and travel” post, a motivational (hopefully) message, a reminder of the beauty of travel, of meeting new people, of seeing new things. What I did not talk about was the adventure of travel and the stress and adrenaline involved.

As has been previously reported, I recently presented at a conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. To get there, I had to fight with the metaphorical Cyclops, lotus-eaters, and Sea Nymphs…

On paper the trip was easy: West Palm Beach, which has a cute little airport to Charlotte North Carolina – a behemoth airport, the 10th in the nation with 23.1 million passengers per year. From there to Raleigh Durham, another cute provincial airport, from there a taxi/uber to Chapel Hill.

Unfortunately, the equipment (the airplane for you Philistines) in Palm Beach was broken and we spent more than two hours on the ground getting it fixed. People left the plane to make other plans, but I had no options. There were no more flights to Charlotte and no other flights to Raleigh, I had to take my chances… We arrived at midnight at Charlotte, and I sprinted to the car rental area to try to get a car. Some booths were closing, others had long lines, most had no cars available. In all of Charlotte airport there was one, one car available, it was with Avis, it was electric, and it would cost me $270. But there was nothing else I could do. If I stayed in Charlotte to wait for the next day’s flight, I would miss the conference and an appointment at 9:00 the next morning. I had to take the car. I took the car.

I have never really driven an electric car (yes, ok little electric rentals in Madrid, but that does not really count). I buckled into the Hyundai IONIQ 5 SEL, a $50K rig. In theory it had over 200 miles autonomy for a 144-mile drive, plenty. The theory bit is that the autonomy calculation is at the speed limit, hahaha. Ooops. Not that I drove autobahn style, but it was late, I wanted to get some sleep, and I am a Mediterranean driver anyways, so I might have driven a midge over the limit. Watching the battery level and the mileage left was a hairy experience. The battery clicked to red, 9% as I pulled into the hotel parking lot -I was not going to hunt for free street parking at 2:30 in the morning.

Epilogue:

The next morning (after my breakfast meeting with the great Professor (retired) Frank Dominguez) I found a free charging spot at the chamber of commerce. Fortunately, a Tesla owner arrived at the charging post next to mine and explained that I should leave the car there and go live my life while it charged -Hmm, not your usual gas station experience. So I left the car there and headed to the conference. By late morning, the battery was up to 30%, enough to drive to the airport, return the damn car, and take an uber back to the conference…

Safe travels folks!

El Greco, a proto-Impressionist and the new exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art.

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Confession time: I like the Impressionists, but as a collective, it is not my favorite artistic movement. I like and appreciate the Impressionists individually, but I am not crazy about them as a whole. I can explain.

I am privileged in that I am a supporter of the Prado Museum through their Amigos del Museo del Prado program which is (mostly) fantastic. The main advantage of this “membership” is free access to the museum, which I do take advantage of frequently, plus I love showing the museum to friends and in Tonxo Tours.

So, I often get to see El Greco’s work. Domenico Theotocopulos (1541–1614) was born in Crete, moved to Venice, Rome, Madrid and eventually Toledo, where he would flourish. One of the many interesting things about El Greco was how much nineteenth-century collectors and artists loved his work. Why? Because he was an Impressionist avant la lettre!

Picasso and Renoir were blown away by El Greco, here was someone painting how he wanted to paint more than what he “saw”, a very unreal, conceptual art, and around three hundred years before them!

Why am I pontificating thus? you ask. Well, I recently had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places in South Florida, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. They have just opened a new exhibition titled Artists in Motion: Impressionist and Modern Masterpieces from the Pearlman Collection. It is a smaller exhibit with some niece pieces: a Gaugin wood carving, a van Gogh, some Cezanne, a couple of Modigliani, etc. My favorite was a Modigliani portrait of Jean Cocteau -yes, you could say it is very Grecoish.

When I am at the Norton, I always enjoy walking around and checking out the permanent collection, the gift shop, the sculpture garden, it is all a very rewarding and enriching, my blood pressure goes down. As I have said before many times, an oasis of culture and beauty in South Florida.

Ask not what your country can do for you… Jury Duty

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The first thing the judge asked was to raise our hand if we were happy to be there -I was- but nobody raised their hand, so I didn’t either, I was not going to be the first one to be kicked out of jury duty.

My summons for jury duty came in the middle of the Summer, when I was in Spain, so I postponed it to Sept. 11th. Coincidence? We know there is no such thing.

I was surprised that I was on the first call for jurors, I was not expecting that. Another thing I was not expecting were the views from the 11th floor of the West Palm Beach Courthouse. Amazing!

The case in question was a criminal case involving stalking. Obviously neither the prosecution nor the defense wanted a hyper-educated, suit and bow tie wearing old professor on the jury panel. But I still had to wait all day and answer all sorts of questions before getting released in the afternoon with the other 20 people not chosen: the wife of a polo player from Wellington (Polo capital of the world, a neighborhood of Palm Beach), a Louis Vuitton sales advisor, and all other sorts of interesting and not so interesting jobs…

Happy to have done my duty as a citizen. Fortunately, I will not be considered again until next year.

West Palm Beach as an oasis of art and culture.

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If you pay attention and follow this blog you will notice that the main topics covered are The Camino, academics and education, Literature, art and culture, and then a lot of random thoughts and stuff.

This reflects who I am, of what drives me, what makes me tick. And as such it is -I guess- remarkably reliable. The reason for my passion for art and culture lies in the emotions involved and invoked by art.

Fortunately, a lot of art is now accessible from the comfort of your home: film, books, and so forth. But, a lot of art has to be shared, you have to get out to experience it. I am blessed to live near Palm Beach, which is -I have said this before- an oasis of art and culture in this suburban wasteland that is South Florida.

The Norton Museum gets a lot of attention in this blog because it is a jewel of a place which I love. I recently went to see their latest addition: John Singer Sargent’s painting of Amy Phipps Guest. It is a beautiful painting with illumination reminiscent of Sorolla (they were contemporaries and not only did their careers overlap, their technique is eerily similar).

Another cultural treasure of Palm Beach is the Palm Beach Symphony, which I saw perform Handel’s Messiah in December. I recently saw them perform their season finale, at the Kravis Center, their “home”, which included Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23, Franck Symphony in D minor, and Hailstork’s Monuments for solo trombone

In conclusion: thank God for Palm Beach.

A Quiet Abiding: Jacobus Vrel’s Interior with a Sick Woman by a Fireplace

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This world is driving us all crazy, it is polarized, violent, in a rush, inconsiderate, uneducated, younameit. But there are a few solutions, a few ways out. One is art. We need more art in our lives. Art makes us slow down, it makes us stop, stop and look, stop and listen, stop and touch, stop and smell, stop and taste.

Last Saturday, although I was just coming out of a massive cold, I went to see A Quiet Abiding: Jacobus Vrel’s Interior with a Sick Woman by a Fireplace from the n at my oasis of culture and art: the Norton Museum of Art.

I arrived at the same time as the Chinese Dragon show was about to start in the garden to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but I went straight upstairs to see this painting, which will be on show at the Norton for two years.

Little is known about Vrel other than he barely preceded Vermeer, in fact the painting has an air of Vermeer, but apparently it is the other way around Vermeer has an air of Vrel.

The painting is beautiful, simple, quiet, and alluring. You want to make some tea for the sick old lady, some chicken soup. There is a weak fire in the fireplace, and that flickering flame, a handful of tiny brushstrokes, makes the painting, brings it all together, it is amazing!! A little like the flowers in infanta Margarita Teresa de Austria’s dress in Velazquez’s Meninas.

If you are around Palm Beach up until December 15 2024, do not miss this painting. You are welcome.

Breakfast in West Palm Beach: Hive Bakery and Café

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Those of you who follow this blog at all might know that it started as a way to chronicle my Harley-Davidson (RIP) ride from Boston to Austin, Texas and back looking for a PhD program in Spanish Literature in 2011. After the trip I just kept writing and writing. I write about anything that interests me in any way: Academics and education, literature, The Camino de Santiago, culture, cities, food, cigars, travel and adventure, etc. Today is restaurant review day:

I recently had the opportunity to have breakfast with a dear friend in West Palm Beach at Hive Bakery and Café.

The restaurant is on iconic Route 1 (South Dixie Highway) across the street from the Norton Museum (which I have written about a lot, click here). The whole block is owned and run by the same folks. They have a home decoration store and business, and a clothing store.

Hive sits on a nice corner and has the obligatory artsy design (with a beehive pattern, get it?). Inside it is warm, well lit, and airy, very pleasant, with all the de rigueur décor. Your eyes immediately catch the counter full of delicious looking pastries. This being 2022, and West Palm Beach, the food was healthy but delicious, you will not find greasy diner breakfast fare here. The coffee was top notch, well made with quality coffee. My pain au chocolat looked very elegant, crunchy on the outside, but it missed the buttery softness inside. The service was attentive and professional. It was a perfect experience.

So, what is wrong with this place? Nothing. And that is the problem: it has no character, no personality, no charm, it is all Instagram perfect, there is nothing exceptional, it is sterile. Critically, it has no narrative, or the narrative is boring. Everything was good but not remarkable. If I never go back, I will not miss it, I will not miss the food, the people, nothing. It seems to me that nowadays everything is designed to perfection, consultants develop the perfect menu, accountants establish the perfect everything to maximize revenues, everything is so impeccable that it is boring.

When I get the chance to go out, I will always choose a place that has something, usually a combination of extraordinary (not expensive) food, character, personality, history, sense of humor, great staff, or an indescribable factor that makes you want to come back again and again. Hive is not that place.

Hispanic Heritage celebration at the Norton

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The Norton Museum in West Palm Beach is such an oasis of culture for me that I have already written about it five times in this blog. Well, here is the sixth:

Understanding the importance of Hispanic Heritage and Hispanic Heritage month, the Norton organized an open house “Nuestra Cultura” day in celebration. I took advantage of the opportunity and took some students from my classes. We had a blast!

We skipped the piñata making table, the Latin dance lessons, and the food stalls. We checked out the mercado set up in the garden, and what we really dug our teeth into the actual museum. Although the collection is small, it contains top notch art. We walked around discussing different pieces and paintings.

We had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed (finally) being able to share the Norton with my students!

West Palm Beach, a celebration

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Within the suburban wasteland that is South Florida, Palm Beach stands out as a beacon of civilization. Developed in the early 20th century by rich northerners who were scaping the cold and snow, it soon became the place for really rich folks to build winter homes (think Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Mar-a-Lago). If you were not rich enough to own a home you could always spend a few days at the iconic Breakers hotel. Nowadays, the Palm Beaches boast the Norton Museum which I have talked about already, and great dining venues.

I recently had the chance to explore Palm Beach at night. A colleague’s birthday was all it took to get three guys to go explore, improvise, and enjoy some drinks and a great dinner. Sure, there was some shop talk and some philosophy talk (they are both professors of philosophy, I am just an amateur) but mostly we just chatted and shared and enjoyed breaking bread together.

Pre-dinner drinks were had at the great rooftop Spruzzo bar atop the Ben hotel. The views were amazing, the drinks chilly, and the vibe great!

From there we walked around Clematis Street checking out the fun atmosphere, before settling down for dinner at Elisabetta’s Ristorante for a great Italian meal.

Overall, a fun time was had by all. I must say I was impressed by the cosmopolitan and sophisticated feel of West Palm Beach, I’ll be back.