CALARTS GETS WORK FROM COLLECTION.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

VALENCIA - A painting titled ``Three Black Fish Swimming Through Tulips'' has been given to the California Institute of the Arts as part of a major donation from Eileen and Peter Norton.

The giant painting - 11 feet wide and 2 feet high - currently covers the dining room wall of CalArts President Steven Lavine's Encino home, where its been on loan since the early 1990s.

``It's a beautiful piece,'' said Jeff James, vice president of planning and advancement for CalArts. ``They've decided to make it a permanent gift.''

Painted by Gaylen Hansen in 1975, the artwork indeed depicts three black fish swimming through tulips. It likely will remain at Lavine's home, which is owned by the Valencia institute.

``We host periodic events there,'' James said. ``Many donors and friends of CalArts come there when we are celebrating various things.''

Hansen, a Utah native, lives in Washington. In 1989 he won the Governor's Arts Award from the state of Washington and the Sambuca Romana Prize from The New Museum in New York.

The gift to CalArts, where Peter Norton is vice chairman of the board, is part of the Nortons' contribution of nearly 1,000 artworks worth more than $2 million.

California State University, Los Angeles, also received works from the Nortons' collection. Cal State L.A. and CalArts are the only California colleges included among several recipients.

``It was a very thoughtful gift,'' James said. ``Plenty of people will be able to see this.''

Other recipients include The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Tate Gallery in London.

Also receiving donations are the Laguna Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, Orange County Museum of Art and the San Jose Museum of Art.

Organized in a thematic package, as opposed to style or genre, the works are being donated with the hope of strengthening the presence of contemporary art.

Most of the donations will go to colleges and universities outside of the biggest cities, a plan to bring attention to smaller museums.

Concentrating on new works that instill socially meaningful ideas in visually exciting forms, the Nortons began to assemble their art collection in the 1980s.

In 1990, the couple began to increase their collection and since have been included on the Art News list of the world's 200 top art collectors. The donations will reduce their collection by nearly 40 percent.

While the recent donation to CalArts is noteworthy, the Nortons are not new to generous gift-giving. Among the couple's best-known philanthropies in the arts has been the Curator's Grant Program, initiated in 1990.

Each year the Nortons provide discretionary funds to two or three contemporary art curators of exceptional merit, so the curators can purchase works of art for their institutions.

- Daily News wire services contributed to this story.