IRVING NORMAN (1906-1989)










Provenance
Martin SosinHeather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, California
Exhibition
Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum, September 23, 2006 – January 7, 2007 Pasadena, Pasadena Museum of California Art, January 21 – April 15, 2007 Logan, Utah, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, June 5 – October 6, 2007 Washington D.C., Katzen Arts Center at American University, November 2007 – January 2008, Laguna Art Museum June 22, 2008 – October 5, 2008Literature
Dark Metropolis: Irving Norman’s Social Surrealism, pub. Crocker Art Museum and Irving Norman Tr...More...ust, 2006, pg. 73...LESS...175,000
History
Painted in 1959, Irving Norman’s The Palace was conceived and created during the last year of the decade when Abstract Expressionism dominated the art world. At the time, two superpowers were engaged in a fully entrenched battle for ideological supremacy, the double helix DNA molecule had recently been discovered, and the cult of McCarthyism and its web of accusations, suspicion and paranoia had finally been wrestled to the ground. Given the timbre of the time, not surprisingly, museum trustees overruled courageous directors when Norman’s paintings were offered as acquisition considerations. Invariably, the work was rejected, euphemistically designated as ‘outside current trends.’ But the deeper truth? Trustees considered the work too confrontational. They worried that donors might frame the work as subversive. Private sales fared no better. Too big, too thought provoking, not decorative. Still, Norman stood tall; he turned, faced the large, empty canvases and designed and painted increasingly complex, densely populated canvases. As for recognition, he rationalized the situation — fame or fortune risked the unsullied nature of an artist’s quest intent upon making the world a better place. To that end, he continually endeavored to pull back the curtain and expose the darker side of the human predicament — the war mongering, the abject corruption, the frantic pleasure seeking, and the dehumanizing effects of modern society – all of it, leavened by his characteristic biting satire. The Palace is a work of that kind of earnest intent; one that stages the dehumanizing effects of urban living, industrialization, and economic disparity.
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