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Norman Lewis (artist) Norman Wilfred Lewis (July 23, 1909 – August 27, 1979) was an American painter, scholar, and teacher. Lewis, who was African-American and of Bermudian descent, was associated with abstract expressionism, and used representational strategies to focus on black urban life and his community's struggles.
Norman Wilfred Lewis (July 23, 1909 – August 27, 1979) was an American painter, scholar, and teacher. Lewis, who was African-American (of Bermudian descent), was associated with , and used representational strategies to focus on black urban life and his community's struggles. Norman Wilfred Lewis was born in New York, New York.
- American
- July 23, 1909
- New York City, New York, United States
- August 27, 1979
Artist Biography. During the mid-1940s New York painter Norman Lewis abandoned the social realist style that he had pursued for more than a decade, having decided that painting "an illustrative statement that merely mirrors some of the social conditions" was not an effective agent for change. Around 1946 he began exploring an overall, gestural ...
- July 23, 1909
- August 27, 1979
- Summary of Norman Lewis
- Accomplishments
- Biography of Norman Lewis
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Norman Lewis, a leading African-American painter, was an important member of the Abstract Expressionism movement, and he also used representational strategies to focus on black urban life and his community's struggles. Lewis's work is characterized by the duality of abstraction and representation, using both geometric and natural forms, in the depi...
Lewis ceased painting Social Realistworks in the early 1940s because he found the style was not effective to counter racism. He saw abstraction as a strategy to distance himself from racial artisti...One marker of Lewis's work is his frequent use of the color black, which appears to predate that of his friend and fellow artist Ad Reinhardt. However, for an artist who was concerned with race and...Lewis garnered important gallery representation and was involved with several key events of the Abstract Expressionist movement, this despite the racism of the art world and American segregation of...Childhood
Norman Lewis was born in Harlem, which at the time of his birth was a predominantly Italian and Jewish neighborhood, with few African American families, an imbalance which made him keenly aware of racial inequality at a very young age. Lewis recognized that he wanted to be an artist when just nine years old. In high school, he studied drawing and commercial design. At age 20, Lewis was employed as a seaman on a freighter and spent several years traveling about South America and the Caribbean....
Early Training
In the early 1930s, inspired by the teachings of philosopher Alain Locke and his New Negro Movement, Lewis was excited by African art, which he arduously studied in several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art during the 1935 exhibition African Sculpture. The young artist met the sculptor Augusta Savage who was one of the most important African-American art educators, as well as a renowned artist. From 1933 to 1935, Lewis enrolled in her Savage School of Arts and Crafts based in Harlem...
Mature Period
In the mid-1940s, Lewis began to experiment with pure abstraction, and became active in the New York School and Abstract Expressionism. New York's Willard Gallery, "which was considered one of the most prestigious commercial venues for abstract expressionism," represented Lewis and hosted his first solo exhibition in 1949. He went on to have nine solo shows within ten years at the Gallery, which managed his career until 1964. The works he exhibited highlighted his signature calligraphic line,...
Learn about Norman Lewis, a leading African-American painter who explored abstraction and representation to depict black urban life and his community's struggles. See his paintings, bio, ideas, and quotes on TheArtStory.
- American
- July 23, 1909
- Harlem, New York
- August 27, 1979
Norman Wilfred Lewis (July 23, 1909 – August 27, 1979) was an American painter, scholar, and teacher. Lewis, who was African-American and of Bermudian descent, was associated with abstract expressionism, and used representational strategies to focus on black urban life and his community's struggles. Wikidata. Q7052490.
Aug 23, 2024 · Norman Lewis (born July 23, 1909, New York, New York, U.S.—died August 27, 1979, New York City) was an Abstract Expressionist painter and teacher who diverged from his native Harlem community of artists in choosing abstraction over representation as his mode of expression. Lewis was born in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City to ...
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Norman Lewis. Norman Lewis was an African-American artist known for his incisive depictions of contemporary society and poetic abstractions. “I wanted to be above criticism, so that my work didn't have to be discussed in terms of the fact that I'm black,” he once said. Born on July 23, 1909 in New York, NY, Lewis began his career as a ...
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