OPENING UP ART: Charles Winthrop Norton’s dream of having an art exhibition was realized Wednesday night, albeit posthumously.
The late artist’s parents Brigitte and Chris orchestrated “The Pippins: Dilemma of Colors,” which is on view at High Line Nine through the end of this month. More than an unveiling of Norton’s whimsical and satirical characters and work, the show is designed to raise mental health awareness and to support Project Healthy Minds. All proceeds from the exhibition will benefit the Millennial/Gen-Z-driven nonprofit, which aims to provide free mental health services to 250,000 annually through a new portal.
Norton, who suffered from severe depression and mental illness, died in July 2019 at the age of 24. Born in Washington, D.C., he grew up in Bali, Singapore and France. His father, Chris, is chief executive officer of Equinox Hotels, and previously served as chief operating officer of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
During Wednesday’s opening, the artist’s mother Brigitte, who as a sculptor collaborated with her late son, said, “Charlie was always an artist and his dream was to exhibit his Pippins. Before he became sick and while he was sick, he was doing prints, stickers, cards and he was trying to promote himself. He never really could do it. When he passed, it was important for us to try any way that we could to bring them back to life.”
All of the Pippins are simultaneously giving a thumbs-up sign in the front and extending a middle finger behind their backs. On one of the gallery’s walls, a line that Norton penned, during a two-week stay in a psychiatric hospital, explained that dichotomy. “When s–t from the past comes and spooks you, tell it to politely f–k off.”
High Line Nine visitors are encouraged to explore that duality of acting as though things are OK, when they are not, by writing examples of both on a wall. Speaking of the relatability of the duality, Chris Norton said, “We all have that somehow. People ask us how we are and we say fine, when we’re not,” Norton’s father said. “And none of the Pippins really make eye contact with the public. We never noticed that but Shai [Baitel, the inaugural artist director of Modern Art Museum Shanghai, who wrote in an essay about the show] did.
“There’s only one standing also,” Brigitte Norton said. “He splashed everything in colors, too.”
Gathering all of their son’s work including poems and books he wrote was “very hard, but at the same time very healing. We felt really connected. There was always something in him in every text that he wrote.”
One of the “Pippins” that is featured in the show.
Courtesy of High Line Nine
The late artist had written poems for individual Pippins that he created. During Wednesday’s opening, pre-taped recordings of Robert Redford, Goldie Hawn and Whoopi Goldberg each reading one of those poems were played. All of the poems are sarcastic and take shots at societal issues
The couple has found that as they have shared the Pippins with friends and other people, it opens them up. Chris Norton said, “So many people have their own story in suffering around depression and mental illness [through] family, parents, brothers, sisters. There are people we have known for years who had never talked about it. When we start telling our story and showing the Pippins, people can connect with the visuals in some way. They see our story but they find their story also. We hope that it can become a platform and poster child to open up the conversation.”
Architect David Rockwell and Rhone cofounder Kyle McClure were among the guests at the opening party. McClure said, “We hope that Charlie’s dream is being carried on and his art will hopefully help continue the conversation around mental health that is so important. In the midst of the coronavirus, I would say that the largest global pandemic facing all of humanity is mental health. It doesn’t discriminate from a continent, or from race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity. It’s a collective suffering of the world. Hopefully, this creates awareness.”
Project Healthy Minds’ founder Phillip Schermer said the expectation is to help 100,000 in the first year. “You need to democratize access to mental health care. It should be free to find the right kind of mental health services that are right for you. Not everybody needs the same thing. Some people need therapists. Some people need to see a psychiatrist. Some people need a support group. A lot of folks, who lost a child, will say one of the most important things they did was to find other parents or siblings, who lost someone. By meeting them and joining them, that helped them on their way.”
Source: WWD