Collected Postcards

 

Norton Family Christmas Greetings

Peter Norton is a programmer, software publisher, author, and philanthropist, best known for creating Norton AntiVirus, the once-ubiquitous anti-virus and anti-malware software. 

In 1989, Norton and his wife Eileen founded the Peter Norton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to visual and contemporary non-profit arts organizations, as well as human social services organizations. He serves on the board of MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney. 

The Nortons accumulated one of the largest modern contemporary art collections in the United States. ARTnews magazine regularly lists Norton among the world's top two-hundred collectors.

Twenty-five years ago, the Norton Family Christmas Project began commissioning artists to create original, multiple-edition works that were mailed as holiday greetings to friends, colleagues, and selected institutions.  

"My wife and I are active in the world of contemporary art, and some time ago we became embarrassed at the idea of sending out traditional commercial cards at Christmastime when we had so many artists as friends,” he told Gregory Taylor. "So we began commissioning original Christmas greetings, which we send out to our closest friends and colleagues.”

The multiples and artists’ books in the series vary wildly: a porcelain ashtray, a lapel pin, a printed fan, a music box, a CD, a woven blanket, a lifesaver, a dollhouse, trophies, cards, a cup & saucer, a slide viewer, salt & pepper shakers as snow globes,  pop up books by Peter Coffin and Kara Walker, etc., etc.  

Participating artists include Robert Lazzarini, Do Ho Suh, Ry Rocklen, Takashi Murakami, Anna Gaskell, Yinka Shonibare, Sanford Biggers, Yasumasa Morimura, Christian Marclay, Vik Muniz, Sanford Biggers, Nina Katchadourian, Marc Swanson, Jim Hodges, Kevin Sommers, Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt, Benjamin Lord, Richard Kostelanetz, Lorna Simpson, Lawrence Weiner, and many others. 

 

Vik Muniz | Postcards from Nowhere

Vik Muniz

Postcards from Nowhere

New York City, USA: Aperture, 2020

34 pp., 25 x 30 cm., hardcover

Edition of 500 numbered copies

A two-volume set that documents Muniz' series of postcard collages, including such staples as the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Taj Mahal. 

Volume I presents thirty-two single postcards photographed by the artist in a way that illuminates the overlapping of small parts in his intricate collages. Volume II presents a series of thirty-six postcards that can be assembled into a single, large-scale work of 30 x 40 inches. 

Quickly escalating in price, but still available from the publisher for $250 US, here. 

“The images we hold in our heads are an assemblage. They are an amalgam of every image of those locations that we have ever seen.” 

- Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz | Peter Norton Family Christmas Project

Vik Muniz
Untitled
Santa Monica, USA: Peter Norton family Christmas project, 1999
32 cm diameter
Edition size unknown

A ceramic plate featuring an image of Muniz’s recreation of Caravaggio’s Medusa from the late 16th century, rendered in pasta marinara.

Available at the MoMA gift shop, for $250 US, here.