Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena - Norton Simon Museum Visitors Guide

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is one of my favorite art museums in Southern California because it packs such a concentration of well-known art into a manageable space. The Getty Center and LA County Museum of Art are great museums with plenty of masterpieces, but for art value per step, you can't beat the Norton Simon. Originally based on the private art collection of industrialist Norton Simon, the museum took over the Pasadena Art Museum in 1974 and the collection has continued to expand.

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Norton Simon Museum Overview and Orientation

The museum has two levels. The Main or Upper Level houses

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The Art Upstairs: European and American Art

Still Life with Lemons, Oranges — Kayte Deioma

If you start chronologically, one of the earlier works to look for is

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The Art Downstairs: South and Southeast Asian Art

Many people I know have visited the Norton Simon a number of times and never been downstairs. Even if you only have a few minutes, I would highly recommend a stroll through the Asian Art Collection. Works from India dominate, but Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand and other South and Southeast Asian countries are also represented. There are plenty of the typical statues of Buddha, Vishnu and Ganesh, but also excellent representations of the playfulness and eroticism found in South Asian art.

The temporary exhibit galleries are also downstairs, featuring rotating exhibits from the permanent collection.

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The Art and Food Outside: Sculpture Gardens at the Norton Simon Museum

Rodin's Burghers of Calais — Kayte Deioma

The Norton Simon Museum has a popular Sculpture Garden and Café at the back of the museum. A collection of large sculptures, mostly by French artist, Aristide Maillol, surround a small pond. The café is run by the Patina Group, which also has restaurants at the Music Center and Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA, so at least you can get a decent chicken sandwich. There is also a small lesser-known Asian Sculpture Garden accessed from the Lower Level.
However, I find the most notable outdoor art to be the Rodin collection in front of the museum entrance. Not only does the Norton Simon have one of the 12 copies of Auguste Rodin's six-figure Burghers of Calais, but they also have several of Rodin's studies of the individual figures that he created before compiling the six men into one sculpture. The Burghers of Calais was commissioned by the city of Calais to honor the sacrifice of six wealthy citizens who hostaged themselves to the King of England in 1347 to free their town. In the final sculpture, the six men are in ragged clothes with nooses around their necks. Before creating the composite piece, Rodin sculpted each man alone, first unclothed and then clothed. You can see Rodin's development of these individual characters in those studies on display around the front garden.

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Norton Simon Museum - Visitor Information - Location - Hours

Picasso's "Woman with a Book" — Kayte Deioma

The Norton Simon Museum
411 West Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91105
Phone: (626) 449-6840
Website: www.nortonsimon.org
Hours: Mon, Wed noon-5 pm, Friday & Sat 11 am - 8 pm, Sun 11 am - 5 pm, closed Tuesday
Museum gardens and store close 15 minutes before galleries.
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day
Admission: $12 adults, $9 seniors, free for children under 18, students with ID and Active Military with ID. Free to all the first Friday of the month from 5 to 8 pm.
Parking: Free lot
Audio tour: $3 per unit

This information was accurate at the time of publication, but may change at any time. Please check the museum website for the most current information.