The annals of art history are rife with artists of genius who never achieved the repute they deserved during their lifetime. Irving Norman, variously labeled “social surrealist,” “magic realist,” or simply “humanist painter” is among the most deserving of that unceremonious distinction. Undeterred by the portentous mandate to conform to any of the art ‘isms’ that, for Norman, had become empty and meaningless, he worked against the grain of his time. He would produce some of the most potent visual indictments of a contemporary world shaped by war, immoral profiteering, and the nightmarish, dehumanizing elements of modern society. Consider Norman a truly heroic artist. His mantra, “to tell the truth of our time” and to unmask the darker, most nefarious elements of human nature, grew from a spark that lit his life path; his ghastly experiences on the battlefield during the last year of the Spanish Civil War. Those remembrances haunted him forever. Yet they also fueled a life story as riveting as the drawings and paintings that so aptly project his vision. He volunteered to fight in a foreign land and a war he never expected to return from, a degree of sacrifice — the ultimate sacrifice — and it is at the core of understanding Norman and his art. In a sense, his paintings ask some of the same of us. He lived as the hopeful idealist and drew and painted with a clear agenda — to create works from which a viewer could not turn away, hoping for a humanizing effect that could be carried forth.
Urban Scene oil on canvas 40 x 50 in. 1956
Totems
oil on canvas 72 x 110 in. 1972
The Palace
oil on canvas 90 x 60 in. 1959
Draftee
oil on canvas 100 x 38 in 1982
Prisoner
oil on canvas 54 x 20 in. 1950
Air Raid Shelter oil on canvas 100 x 64 in. 1958-1977
Aspirations
oil on canvas 90 x 54 in. 1967
Children #2
oil on canvas 72 x 90 in. 1971
Trapped
oil on canvas 73 7/8 x 35 5/8 in. 1984
Cityscape
oil on canvas 74 1/8 x 37 1/2 in. 1955
Flight
oil on canvas 60 x 74 in. 1955
Farewell
oil on canvas 90 x 100 in. 1972
Funeral of the Gods oil on canvas 90 x 110 in. 1968
Liberation War Prisoners oil on canvas 72 x 90 in. 1970-1971
Man of Sorrow oil on canvas 84 x 60 in. 1988
Mining
oil on canvas 40 x 84 in. 1986
Prison
oil on canvas 56 x 46 in. 1951
Monumental oil on canvas 90 x 64 in. 1969
Slum Youth
oil on canvas 44 1/4 x 20 1/4 in. 1942
Totem of a Holy Family oil on canvas 90 x 19 3/4 in. 1974
To Have and Have Not, Charity Gala oil on canvas 92 x 104 in. 1979-1980
Prisoners
oil on canvas 52 x 68 1/8 in. 1960
Supreme Justice oil on canvas 100 x 76 in. 1974
The Academy oil on canvas 110 x 90 in. 1975-1976
War Wounded oil on canvas 70 x 60 in. 1960
The Lawmakers, The Legislators oil on canvas 90 x 72 in. 1987
The Human Condition oil on canvas 120 x 182 in. 1980-1981
To Be Remembered oil on canvas 90 x 48 in. 1974
To the Unknown oil on canvas 96 x 72 in. 1977
Wine Bottle
graphite on paper 18 7/8 x 11 5/8 in. 1945
Women Welders, The Ship graphite on paper 14 1/4 x 28 3/8 in. 1943
From Work
lithograph on paper 20 x 25 in. 1977 Edition 53/90
Untitled
pencil on paper 14 x 11 in.
Untitled
pencil on paper 11 x 14 in.
Untitled
pencil on paper 14 x 11 in.
Untitled
pencil on paper 14 x 11 in.
Untitled
graphite on paper 5 x 3 1/2 in.
Untitled
graphite on paper 5 x 3 1/2 in.
Untitled
graphite and crayon on paper 12 x 8 7/8 in.
Untitled
pencil on paper 6 3/4 x 2 in.
Untitled
pencil on paper 7 1/2 x 3 7/8 in.
Unititled
graphite on paper 6 x 3 1/2 in.
Untitled
graphite on paper 4 7/8 x 3 in.
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graphite and crayon on paper 12 x 8 7/8 in.
Untitled
graphite and crayon on paper 12 x 8 7/8 in.
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graphite and crayon on paper 12 x 8 7/8 in.
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pen on paper 8 7/8 x 6 in.
Untitled
graphite on paper 5 x 3 1/2 in.
The Circus, Balancing Act 2 pencil on paper 11 x 9 in.
The Circus, Balancing Act 2
pencil on paper 11 x 9 in.
Untitled
graphite and crayon on paper 12 x 8 7/8 in.
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