Each week, CGN interviews a local art dealer to discuss the ins and outs of running a gallery in the city of Chicago. This week we caught up with Richard P. Norton of Richard Norton Gallery.

Gallery: Richard Norton Gallery
Name: Richard P. Norton
Age: 48
Previous occupation: Distracted undergraduate
Hometown: Chicago

CGN: How did you become an art dealer?

Richard P. Norton: Born and bred.

CGN: Please describe your gallery's program in one sentence.

RN: Great 20th century American paintings.

CGN: What is the first thing you do each morning when you get to the gallery?

RN: Hot coffee!

CGN: Thumbs up or down on art fairs?

RN: Big thumbs up!

CGN: Artists you admire but don't represent?

RN: Aziz Ansari, Leslie Jones, John Mulaney.

CGN: Best sale you ever had? 

RN: Happy, appreciative and grateful for all of them!

CGN: Advice would you share with new or young collectors?

RN: Don't drink at Art Fairs; the "stupid question" is the one not asked and never buy anything online without seeing it first! 

CGN: Which artist that you represent or work of art you have recently acquired are you most excited about?

RN: I’m very keen on the gallery's collection of large, Post-War abstractions by the Bauhaus trained artist Eugene Dana, and the 1930s & 1940s Modern Cubist paintings by LeRoy Turner we plan to exhibit this fall at EXPO CHICAGO. The artwork hasn't been seen by the public eye in over thirty years.

CGN: What major successes have you had this year? What about challenges?

RN: My erg score is holding up pretty well, and I hope our set in the quad is better during the head races this fall.

CGN: How do you view working as an art dealer in Chicago?

RN: Find a good art fair in Grand Cayman during February!

CGN: What is your favorite interest outside the art world?

RN: Democracy in America

CGN: What is your favorite work of public art in Chicago?

RN: Lake Michigan

Top 5
CGN: What are your favorite art spaces to visit?

RN:

1. D'amato's 
2. Bennison's
3. Sweet Mandy B's
4. Manny's
5. Furama

Richard P. Norton is the owner of Richard Norton Gallery located in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. For more information about his gallery visit: Richard Norton Gallery.