'Paper Trail' exhibition marks landmark donation of 700 prints to Norton Museum of Art

It's a paper trail of epic proportions.

One of the latest exhibitions at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach also represents a groundbreaking gift: A promise of nearly 700 prints and other works on paper, from longtime West Palm Beach resident and Norton supporter Jonathan "Jack" Frost.

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The exhibition is aptly titled "The Paper Trail: 500 Years of Prints from the Jonathan 'Jack' Frost Collection." It is on view through Aug. 11 and features 75 works from artists including Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Hannah H?ch, Edgar Degas, ?douard Manet, Henry Moore and Thomas Moran.

"There's something very profound in having the opportunity to be able to see something that you've enjoyed for all these years, and now to share it with the community," Frost said. "I think there's something really special about that."

The donation was a natural fit for Frost, who has spent decades amassing his collection, as well as years serving on the Norton's Building and Grounds Committee.

"We are grateful to Jack Frost for this incredible promised gift that fills gaps in the Norton’s collection of works on paper and greatly expands our holdings of European and American works, adding variety and breadth," Ghislain d’Humières, the Norton's Kenneth C. Griffin director and chief executive, said in a news release.

Frost began his collection at the behest of Dorothy Braude Edinburg, a well-known collector and dealer who was a longtime family friend of Frost, and who implored him and his sister to consider the potential of prints.

It wasn't his first collection. As a child, Frost collected baseball cards, then comic books. "At one point a number of years ago, I got that call that every son wants to hear from his father: 'Your mother found your baseball cards,'" he recalled, laughing.

Growing up in Massachusetts, Frost sought mostly cards for members of the Boston Red Sox.

In addition to his service to the Norton, Frost — who worked in real estate and construction and is president of Commerce Consulting Inc. — is a familiar face in Palm Beach County's nonprofit world. He's served on a number of boards including the South Florida Fair, Good Samaritan Medical Center, the Law Enforcement Assistance Foundation and the West Palm Beach Police Pension Fund.

One of the first prints he collected was by Claude Mellan, he said. It was from 1642 and had been decommissioned from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. "I was really pleased to find such a fine work available, and here it is, museum-quality, and in my price range," he said.

Edinburg's nose for a good print was unmatched, Frost said. She had connections with dealers, museums and auction houses around the world, and shared her knowledge with Frost and his sister.

"She took it on as a task and a challenge and something she loved," Frost said of Edinburg's efforts to help him grow his print collection.

Initially, Frost viewed his collection as an investment, as Edinburg guided him through a series of smart investments in valuable pieces.

"She knew what she was doing," he said. "She had a very sharp eye, and she was very frugal."

Edinburg encouraged Frost to seek out pieces by the major painters-engravers — peintres-graveurs, in French — of each era. "We had a goal in mind," he said, "and I even have one of the original checklists that she had."

The exhibition is organized chronologically and incorporates prints made using woodcuts, engraving, etching, drypoint and lithography.

Frost is happy to share two of his favorite prints in "The Paper Trail."

One is "Monterey Cypress," by Gustave Baumann, a woodcut print from the 1930s. It features layers of bright colors: emerald green, orange, shades of purple.

"It's very interesting, the way the limbs are formed, and the combination, just the look of it all," Frost said. "The skill of him being able to, with woodcuts, get that and all the justification of the different colors onto paper."

The second of Frost's favorites in "The Paper Trail" is "Making the Engine," by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, a lithograph from 1917.

It's from a series of British propaganda prints created to help promote the war effort, Frost said. In stark black and white, the print shows men at work in a factory's lathe shop. "You get a real sense of the energy within that factory," he said.

Frost said it was an honor to promise his collection to the Norton.

"The membership in the Norton is the greatest deal you can have around here," he said. "As a supporter, the access you have there to a museum that has the finest permanent collection in the Southeast is just incredible."

He started thinking a few years ago about what he would do with his prints. He considered selling the pieces individually, or as a group at auction.

"I really thought that I wanted it put together as a collection and as a tribute to Dorothy," Frost said. "If I started selling them off piece by piece, she'd be rotisserie in her grave."

He knew the Norton would be the best place for it to be maintained and appreciated as a collection, he said. He began talking with Robert Evren, the Norton's consulting curator for European art, and Ellen Roberts, who was the senior curator of American art.

Evren showed Roberts a list of Frost's collection. "She said, 'Take every one,'" Frost said, recalling the conversation with Evren.

About 200 of the prints adorn the walls of Frost's home. The rest have been in boxes, Frost said. "Why not utilize them?" he said. Fifteen of the pieces in the exhibition are from his walls, and will return to Frost's home.

The other 60 belong to the Norton, he said.

If you go

What: "The Paper Trail: 500 Years of Prints from the Jonathan 'Jack' Frost Collection."

Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday; closed Tuesday.

Cost: Museum admission is free for members, $18 for general admission, $15 for ages 60 and older, $5 for students with valid school ID, free for children ages 12 and younger. During Art After Dark on Friday nights, admission is $10 for adults and seniors, and $5 for students.

Information: norton.org

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: 'Paper Trail' at Norton Museum marks gift of 700 historic prints