PASADENA, CA.- The Norton Simon Museum presents Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art, an exhibition that looks at the ways artists have been inspired by and responded to the artworks of others. More than 45 objects from the Museum’s permanent collection are examined through the lens of imitation and appropriation, bringing together rarely seen paintings, works on paper and sculpture from the late-15th through the 20th centuries.

Artworks in Under the Influence raise provocative questions about artistic emulation and innovation. Some works are direct copies, such as Degas’ study after Nicolas Poussin’s monumental Rape of the Sabines (Louvre, Paris). Others, like Picasso’s Portrait of a Young Woman (After Lucas Cranach the Younger), are recognizably in the artist’s own style and contrast greatly with the original. Additional works featured include Goya etchings after the Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez, drawings by Fragonard after the Italian Old Masters, paintings by Manet, Cézanne and Seurat, and lithographs by Picasso. Two works that have been considered study pieces at the Museum—Portrait of a Lady (formerly attributed to Sebastiano Mainardi) and Venetian Nobleman (formerly attributed to Titian)—are also included as exercises in connoisseurship.

The exhibition also includes a 21st-century piece—a model of artist David Schafer’s new work Separated United Forms (SUF). The bronze sculptures, commissioned by the Pacific Medical Buildings for installation at Huntington Hospital in early 2009, were inspired by Henry Moore’s Reclining Form, 1966, a marble sculpture in the Norton Simon collections. Schafer used a hand-held body scanning device to create computer generated renderings of Moore’s marble sculpture, which he then reconfigured to create SUF. Both Moore’s work and Schafer’s model will be installed side by side.

All together, this impressive assemblage offers visitors the unique opportunity to explore some of the motives behind artistic emulation, be they private patronage, formal training, personal admiration of a particular artist, and the growing demand for the wide distribution of notable works. To enhance the experience, when applicable, a small reproduction of the inspiring artwork accompanies the featured work; in several instances, both the inspiring and inspired artworks are presented.

Under the Influence is organized as a complementary exhibition to Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image, which features Los Angeles-based artist Ruth Weisberg’s new series inspired by Guido Cagnacci’s stunning Martha Rebuking Mary for Her Vanity, after 1660. Both exhibitions are on view in the Norton Simon Museum’s lower-level temporary exhibitions gallery from October 17, 2008 through March 2, 2009. Under the Influence is curated by Javier Ramirez, Academic Intern at the Norton Simon Museum.