Norman Lewis (artist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Norman Lewis
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Self-Portrait (1939)
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Norman Wilfred Lewis
July 23, 1909 Harlem, New York City, New York, U.S.
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| Died | August 27, 1979 (aged 70) New York City, New York, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Abstract expressionism |
Norman Wilfred Lewis (born July 23, 1909 – died August 27, 1979) was an amazing American painter, scholar, and teacher. He was an African-American artist with family roots in Bermuda. Lewis is known for his connection to a style called Abstract Expressionism. He often used his art to show scenes of black urban life and the challenges faced by his community.
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Early Life and Learning
Norman Wilfred Lewis was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City on July 23, 1909. He grew up on 133rd Street. His parents, Wilfred and Diane Lewis, were from Bermuda. His father was a fisherman and later a dock foreman. His mother owned a bakery and later worked in homes.
Norman was the middle child of three brothers. His older brother, Saul, became a violinist. Saul even played jazz music with famous musicians like Count Basie and Chick Webb. Norman went to Public School No. 5, where most students were white. He loved art, but he didn't show it much when he was young. This was partly because art supplies were hard to find. Also, his older brother's musical talent seemed to overshadow him.
As a young man, Norman started teaching himself art. He bought commercial art books and practiced drawing from them. At first, he got frustrated because he couldn't get the same detail as the printed art. He didn't realize he was trying to copy them at a different size. Later, he had more success studying art history books. This self-education helped him start his career. However, it sometimes made it hard for him to fully understand lessons from teachers later on.
Norman lived in Harlem his whole life. But around age 20, he also traveled a lot. He worked on ocean freighters for three years. As a seaman, he visited places in South America and the Caribbean.
When he came back from sea, he got a job pressing textiles and garments. There, he met artist Augusta Savage. Her art studio was in the basement of the tailor's shop. He studied art with Augusta Savage at her Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem. Savage was a very important early influence. She gave him a place to work on his art at her Harlem Community Art Center.
In 1934, Lewis joined the 306 Group. This was a group of African American artists and writers. They met to talk about art's role in society. Famous members included Augusta Savage, Romare Bearden, Ralph Ellison, Jacob Lawrence, and Richard Wright. Charles Alston hosted their meetings in his studio. In 1935, Lewis also helped start the Harlem Artists Guild. Members included Romare Bearden, Selma Burke, and Beauford and Joseph Delaney.
Between 1933 and 1935, he studied at Teachers College, Columbia University. He also attended the John Reed Club Art School.
Norman Lewis also taught art for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) starting in 1935. He worked alongside artists like Jackson Pollock. One place he taught was the Harlem Community Art Center.
After the WPA ended in 1943, Lewis taught at the George Washington Carver School. This was a community school in Harlem for students from low-income families. His colleagues there included artists Elizabeth Catlett and Charles White. From 1944 to 1949, he taught art at the Thomas Jefferson School of Social Science.
Early Art: Social Realism
Lewis started his art career in 1930. His early works were mostly social realism and showed real-life figures. He painted what he saw around him. This included scenes like Meeting Place (1930), which showed a swap meet. The Yellow Hat (1936) was a formal Cubist painting. He also painted serious scenes like Dispossessed (1940), about an eviction. Jazz Musicians (1948) showed the bebop music popular in Harlem. His social realism paintings used a clear, realistic style. They showed things like bread lines, evictions, and police brutality.
Lewis said it was hard for him to express social problems in his art. In his later years, he focused more on the beauty of art itself. He told art historian Kellie Jones that an artist's goal should be to develop their artistic skills. He believed artists should contribute to culture in a universal way.
Moving Towards Abstraction
In the late 1940s, Lewis's art became more abstract. He fully embraced Abstract Expressionism partly because he felt disappointed with America after World War II. He found it hypocritical that America fought against an enemy with a "master race" idea. Yet, at home, the armed forces were segregated. He realized art might not change politics directly. So, he decided artists should focus more on developing their artistic skills.
Paintings like Tenement I (1952), Harlem Turns White (1955), and Night Walker No. 2 (1956) show his abstract style. Twilight Sounds (1947) and Jazz Band (1948) show his interest in painting music.
One of his most famous paintings is Migrating Birds (1953). It won the Popular Prize at the Carnegie Museum's 1955 Carnegie International Exhibition. The New York Herald-Tribune newspaper called it "one of the most significant of all events of the 1955 art year." In these decades, his unique style included repeating shapes and symbols. These allowed him to tell stories within his paintings.
He became interested in the Abstract Expressionist movement. He started going to meetings at Studio 35 in Manhattan. He was the only African-American artist there. Through these meetings, he met artists like David Smith, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Tobey, and Richard Lippold. However, Lewis didn't fully join the Abstract Expressionist movement. He felt it didn't treat all artists fairly. He struggled to find art collectors and museums to show his work. This was true even with his awards and impressive exhibition history. Norman Lewis was the only African-American artist among the first Abstract Expressionists. But his work was often overlooked by both white and African-American art dealers and galleries.
In his last 20 years, Lewis created his own special mix of abstract and figurative art. His flowing lines and shapes hinted at figures moving through layers of colors. His painting “Untitled” (around 1957) shows this shift. It moved from pure abstract art to his new style, blending abstract and real shapes.
The Spiral Artist Group
Lewis helped start Spiral, a group of artists and writers. They met regularly from 1963 to 1965. Members included Charles Alston, Romare Bearden, and Hale Woodruff. The group met to talk about how Black artists could address racial equality and struggles in the 1960s through their art. The Spiral group broke up in 1965. This was partly due to discrimination. Lewis also felt that protesting was a better way to bring attention to social issues than painting.
Even though Spiral didn't last long, it had a big impact on the art world. It brought attention to many issues of racial inequality. For example, Spiral and other groups protested the 1968 exhibit "Harlem on My Mind" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This protest helped Black people become more visible in the art world. Before this, the Met had not featured much about Harlem, a cultural hub in New York. Harlem is famous for its art and music. But this exhibit had no self-representation from the neighborhood. Instead, it showed photos taken by a photographer who didn't live in Harlem.
Later Works and Teaching
In 1969, Lewis helped found the Cinque Gallery in New York City. He started it with Romare Bearden and Ernest Crichlow. In the same year, he protested outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was because of the controversial "Harlem On My Mind" exhibition.
His later works include Alabama II (1969), Part Vision (1971), and New World Acoming (1971). He also created a series called Seachange in his final years.
From 1965 to 1971, he taught art for the Harlem Youth in Action program. He started teaching at the Art Students League of New York in 1972. He worked there until he passed away in 1979.
Death and Lasting Impact
In 1975, Norman Lewis married his long-time girlfriend, Ouida Bramwell. He didn't have his own children. But he was like a father to Tarin Fuller, Ouida's daughter.
He passed away unexpectedly on August 27, 1979, in New York City. He was 70 years old.
His art included paintings, drawings, and murals. He was represented by the Willard Gallery, his only gallery. He also received many awards and good reviews. However, his work didn't sell as well as other Abstract Expressionists he exhibited with. Artists like Mark Tobey or Mark Rothko sold much more. He was not included in important books about Abstract Expressionism at the time. These included The Triumph of American Painting (1970) and The New York School (1978) by Irving Sandler. He was also never mentioned in writings by Dore Ashton.
Exhibitions and Collections
Lewis's first major exhibition was in 1934 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He received an honorable mention for his painting called The Wanderer (Johnny). In 1946, he was accepted into the Marian Willard Gallery in New York. He had his first solo exhibition there three years later.
Lewis had art shows in 1951 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). In 1958, he had a show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The first big show looking back at his life's work was in 1976. It was displayed at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The exhibition Black Paintings, 1946-1977 was at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1998. It focused on his paintings that used a lot of the color black. Another solo exhibition was Norman Lewis, from the Harlem Renaissance to Abstraction in 1989. It was held at the Kenkeleba Gallery in New York.
Later exhibitions tried to give him and other Black artists credit for their part in the Abstract Expressionism movement. They didn't get this credit during their lifetimes. These shows included "From the Margins: Lee Krasner and Norman Lewis, 1945-1952" in 2014. Also, "Procession: the Art of Norman Lewis" was held at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2015.
His art is now part of many public museum collections. These include the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other museums include the Art Institute of Chicago, Blanton Museum of Art, and High Museum of Art.
Awards and Recognition
In 1943, Norman Lewis won a competition for the Congress of Industrial Organization. He designed a war relief poster. At the Pittsburgh International Exhibition in 1955, his painting Migrating Birds (1953) won the Popularity Prize. This award was chosen by visitors.
In 1972, he received a grant from the Mark Rothko Foundation. He also got a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In 1975, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for painting.
See also
In Spanish: Norman Lewis (artista) para niños
- List of Federal Art Project artists
