Carolyn DiPaolo
Many years ago, Jonathan “Jack” Frost began collecting work on paper by master artists.
What happened: The West Palm Beach developer amassed hundreds of prints by such great painters as Marc Chagall, Angelica Kauffman and Grant Wood.
Why it’s important: Frost, 76, has promised to give his entire collection of almost 700 works to the Norton Museum of Art.
- Many are on display until Aug. 11 at the West Palm Beach museum. It is the first public showing of the Frost collection.
What you’ll see: Seventy-five prints are arranged chronologically tracing Western printmaking through the centuries. The earliest dates from the early 1500s.
- They include wartime propaganda, religious imagery and landscapes.
- The museum reframed the works and restored some of the prints. Their detail pops against the lush violet gallery walls.
Frost is a Harvard- and Stanford-educated businessman with a law degree, a real estate broker and a contractor. He is well-known for his decades of community service to such organizations as the South Florida Fair, the West Palm Beach Police Pension Fund and Leadership Palm Beach County.
What he said: During a tour last week, Frost gave a large measure of credit for the quality of the collection to family friend Dorothy Braude Edinburg, who guided the acquisitions.
- She encouraged Frost to collect at least one significant print from each of the many notable painter-engravers.
“I’ve always known the Norton was world-class,” Frost said. “To actually get involved in this exhibition has shown the staff’s excellence, enthusiasm and professionalism.”
