LOS ANGELES, CA.- 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.

In tandem with the exhibition, the gallery’s ‘Art in Community: From Studio to Collection’ Education Lab is dedicated to deeper learning about Harris Norton’s collection through a selection of related books, as well as recordings by artists speaking to the personal and professional significance of Harris Norton’s support for their art. Also featured is a collaborative project with local graduate students who, through an exchange of artworks, explored their roles and aspirations as collectors.

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 2009, she established the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation, extending her commitment to social and environmental justice through initiatives supporting education, families and the environment. Then, 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. These values—of access, care and sustained attention—resonate throughout this exhibition, where Harris Norton’s collecting emerges as both an artistic and social act of stewardship.

Exhibition Catalogue

Since she acquired her very first artwork from Los Angeles printmaker Ruth Waddy in 1976, Eileen Harris Norton’s collection has bloomed into a beautiful reflection of her interest in the practices of women and artists of color, and work made in California.

Alongside the eponymous exhibition Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, ‘Destiny Is a Rose’ celebrates fifty years of Harris Norton’s remarkable collection, taking its title from a painting in the collection by Kerry James Marshall and featuring numerous iconic works of contemporary art by Mark Bradford, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons, Glenn Ligon, Yoshimoto Nara, Adrian Piper, Betye Saar, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and more.

Texts by art historian Kellie Jones and curator Ingrid Schaffner delve into the critical role that education and philanthropy, representation and identity, and personal relationships with artists and curators have played in shaping Harris Norton’s visionary collecting practice. Offering deep insight into the act and impact of collecting, ‘Destiny Is a Rose’ is a tribute to Harris Norton’s ongoing role as a vital agent of change and growth within the contemporary art world.