Alfred Jensen (Guatemalan, 1903-1981) "Magic Star II"

Provenance Note: Frederic P. "Nick" Norton (1935-2025) was a respected Western New York attorney, civic leader, and devoted arts patron whose lifelong commitment to culture enriched the Buffalo region. A Dartmouth College graduate (Class of 1957) and Yale Law School alumnus, Norton practiced law locally for five decades at Norton, Radin, Hoover, Freedman, serving corporations, municipalities, and families. He was deeply engaged in civic and cultural life, holding leadership and board roles with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, among others. Since 1961, Norton served Rotary in numerous leadership roles including president, board member, and district governor, and is a Paul Harris Fellow with four sapphires, a benefactor, and a recipient of the Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service.
A dedicated arts patron inspired by his father, he began collecting in 1956 with his passions supported and complimented by his wife, Alexandra Barnes "Alex" Norton, through the years. A passionate and disciplined collector for more than fifty years, Norton assembled an extensive collection of prints, drawings, paintings, and sculpture. His connoisseurship was guided by intellectual curiosity and a commitment to supporting artists and institutions. Between 1998 and 2000, he gifted more than 500 prints to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, underscoring his belief in public access to art. They dedicated the F. Paul Norton and Frederic P. Norton Family Prints and Drawings Study Center in 1999. Works remaining from the Norton estate reflect decades of informed acquisition and cultural stewardship, offering collectors a view into a thoughtful engagement with modern and contemporary art.

Alfred Jensen (Guatemalan, 1903-1981)
Alfred Julio Jensen was an American abstract painter best known for his richly colored geometric grids that fuse mathematics, color theory, and spiritual symbolism. Born in Guatemala City to Danish, German, and Polish parents, Jensen traveled widely in his youth before studying at the San Diego Fine Arts School and later in Munich with Hans Hofmann, following formative encounters with Vaclav Vytlacil and Carl Robert Holty. He moved to the United States in 1934 and developed a highly individual visual language characterized by thick impasto, carefully structured patterns, and philosophical systems rooted in science and numerology. A friend of artists such as Mark Rothko and Sam Francis, Jensen exhibited widely in New York and internationally during the 1950s and 1960s. After his death in Livingston, New Jersey, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum honored him with a major retrospective in 1985, and his work is held in prominent public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institution.