Inside the Artist's Mind: More on Irving Norman

To Have and Have Not (Charity Gala) © Irving Norman 1979-80
(Click on image for larger view).
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

Here is part two of the interview artist Roberta Loach did with Irving Norman back in 1975. I hope you're enjoying this rare peek inside the mind of a phenomenal artist.

Roberta Loach: You haven't had a great deal of what most people would call "success" have you? You are doing well now in sales and acclaim., but it's been a long time coming. So, what's kept you going? What's kept you surviving as an artist?
Irving Norman: Do you mean materially?

RL: No. That's always implicit, so I'm not really concerned with that.
IN: Well...I don't know...just the determination to do something good. I observe life and it turns me on and I have to give it expression.

RL: And you can't not do so?
IN: Yeah...I wouldn't feel well if I couldn't. The big problem is to find what it is you want to do and get as deep as you can go to the truth of things and not hesitate to tell it...no wishy washy stuff...no consideration of anyone in the art world or audience. With me it's just pure self expression. That's my nature just as it was with Jackson Pollock. Curators don't see it that way. They see self expression if it's abstract and if you express yourself in the way I do, they even go so far as to call it propaganda.

RL: Why do you think they feel that way?
IN: It relates to what we talked about earlier...they become part of an establishment. A great deal of it has to do with the fact that they are in a groove. They make a living at it. The atmosphere is conductive to continuing in that way of life. The board of directors, the critics, the whole milieu subconsciously makes them take their safe position. They want to keep their jobs.

Golden Calf 2 © Irving Norman 1985
(Click on image for larger view).
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

RL: What do you so to people who say of your work..."Oh that's been done before."
IN: I would like them to show it to me.

RL: But a lot of the types of statements you make have been made before. E.G. Goya, Beckmann, Grosz, etc.
IN: But that's in the past. What these critics of my work don't see is that life is completely new and different with each era and these concepts have to be renewed...looked at anew.

RL: And your statements related to your time?
IN: I hope so. It would be nice to think so. That's why I'm concerned with preserving some of my better things. For that reason I would like some museums to take them and keep them to exhibit at a later date as a record of our time.

RL: On that subject, you haven't fared too well with museums have you?
IN: No.

RL: What answers have they given you as to why they aren't interested in your work?
IN: They say it just doesn't fit in.

RL: It's not within the trend?
IN: That's the word they use...They say they are sorry but they have work planned two years in advance, and mine just doesn't fit in. Yet local critics, Frankenstein and Fried have been very good to me. Frankenstein tried to get me a show at the Whitney and they kept my photographs for God knows how long. Mrs. Miller of the Museum of Modern Art gave me an honorable mention in a show and asked me to submit a number of drawings to the museum. She hoped they would accept some for their collection, but the board of trustees wouldn't hear of it.

RL: You're uniquely gifted as an artist of consummate skill and originality and you make highly important statements all within the best possible principles of art. Don't you think, therefore, that it is a sad irony that work of such originality is not acceptable by the very people whose raison d'etre is to be able to spot such work?
IN: Yes. I find it an irony, but I believe that there is such a thing as class taste and this doesn't allow for works of extreme originality which happen to be outside of the current trend. This is why I think Arnold Hauser is such a great art historian. All through his volumes he shows what groups of people at what times in history influenced the styles and tastes in art that evolved and how it was in their interest to do so.

The Banquet © Irving Norman 1949 (Graphite and ink on paper).
(Click on image for larger view).
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

RL: All that considered, how do you explain the fact that many people, especially the young, are so strongly drawn to your work?
IN: Well these are original people, original thinkers. They have obviously had some experiences that have opened them up. Primarily my work is a criticism of the world as it is today and the people who are drawn to my work also feel this way. They have been looking for something like this. A good example of this is the show I had at the Student Union Gallery at San Jose State University. It was sensational with the students. They crowded in to see it. But one of the most interesting remarks by one of the art students was...How come we haven't seen such work before?

RL: Yes...How come? Apparently there is a larger public interest in such work, though the museum people are loathe to admit it. This is best illustrated by the George Tooker show last year at the Palace of the Legion of Honor, which was one of the most well-attended shows I have seen.
IN: Sure. The art public is hungry for such work.

More Next Time.
Previous installments of this series can be found here:
Part 1
Part 2
Interview Part 1

See Irving Norman's paintings and drawings live and in person on exhibit now in Sacramento, CA. This rare opportunity to see some of the painter's best works, at The Crocker Museum ends January 7, 2007.

Note: If you're unable to see Norman's work in person you may want to purchase a copy of the book, Dark Metropolis. It's well written and has large, clear, vivid reproductions of Norman's art.

Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.

Happy Holidays from the Duffys

Sea Tree © Ken Duffy 2006

Colorful sea-life festooning a gaudy gorgonia, pink as a plastic Christmas tree, topped by a writhing sea-star. It's this year's version of my annual tweaking of holiday-card conventions. You can't buy it in 20-packs at Hallmart.

Our mailing list for the home-printed paper cards I produce is kind of long, and the associated environmental costs kept coming to mind as I trimmed, folded and inscribed them in my little Santa's workshop in the kitchen. Inside, the cards read "Sea You in the New Year!" and in teeny-tiny type "(You were expecting something deep?)" - seaside silliness for our friends and relations. On the card for my right-wing aunt, I gave her something a little deeper, a pitch to watch "An Inconvenient Truth," with Al Gore. "Set politics aside," I hinted lamely.

Eternal verities such as the rich sea-life we have known (and more which remains unknown) can no longer be taken for granted, as ecological disaster threatens. I don't know if there's really a lifestyle solution to global problems, though I agree with Gore that we must not move from denial to despair without actually trying to DO something. To update an old saying: "Everyone complains about the CLIMATE -- let's DO SOMETHING about it!" Better to watch the Yule Log on TV than to actually burn one? Merry Christmas!
- Ken Duffy, December 23, 2006

CLICK HERE: If you haven't yet seen the movie.

CLICK HERE: If you've seen the movie
but haven't written to Congress yet.


Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.

Irving Norman in Conversation with Roberta Loach

The Bus © Irving Norman 1953
(Click on image for larger view).
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.


I'd like to share with you an interview artist Roberta Loach did with Irving Norman back in 1975. It isn't often you get to really see inside an artist's head but this interview is a great window into Norman's motivations and experiences. Perhaps only another artist knows the right questions to ask, but I find this exchange between Norman and Loach to be fascinating and inspiring, I hope you will too. It's a bit long so I've broken it up into three parts with more of Norman's amazing images. Here is the first installment:

Along the California coast a winding road leads inward to the small cottage of Hela and Irving Norman. The natural, unassuming environment seems to befit the nature of the artist... a robust, vital looking man in his middle years. His energetic appearance is expected when keeping in mind the great amount of effort involved in executing his large oils with their painstakingly accurate detail and profound humanistic statements. His paintings and drawings reveal a life long study of the human anatomy and careful application of such knowledge. His highly complex compositions are composed with a sense of perfection and daring in design. Norman's colors have appeal and even beauty, but their primary concern is to enhance the concepts he puts forth. He is a brutally honest, straightforward man and a pleasure to talk with as he can't be bothered with indecipherable esoteric jargon or the luxury of temperament. He is just concerned with doing and being, living, loving and embracing live to the fullest.

Roberta Loach: Mr. Norman...do you consider yourself a moralist?
Irving Norman: I don’t know what you’re definition of a moralist is unless you see it as getting angry at some things that are done to people that are not good.

RL: I would call a moralist someone with a strong social concern.
IN: Yes, that's what I am. I'm affected by what happens to people, and deeply.

RL: Have you always been?
IN: Yes, I was brought up that way. My education was in the left wing movement in New York during the 30's. It taught me not to be so self-centered but to be concerned about the world...to be aware of the connection of your personal life with the world. I became conscious of what happens to people, globally.

Rush Hour on the Corner of..., © Irving Norman 1977
(Click on image for larger view).
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

RL: When did this consciousness take its form in your experience as an artist?
IN: That came after my war experience. I was looking, seeking a way to express myself. I discovered a love of drawing that I had as a child and since I had a great deal on my mind that I wanted to express, I turned to this medium. My war experience taught me about the oppressiveness of the power structure in its extreme form. At this stage in human development it struck me as a horrible irony that all of the best in science and technology was directed towards destroying people. I wanted to have something to say about this. I turned to art...I discovered my medium slowly.

RL: Did you have much formal training?
IN: Not much. I studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, won the Bender Award, which enabled me to return to New York to study at the Art Student's League. I studied with Reginald Marsh. He wasn't a good teacher, but I liked the way he handled the figure. I also had great enthusiasm and admiration for Robert Beverly Hale in his great class in anatomy and drawing. I wanted to learn to relate the figure to the environment. That is why there is so much environment in my work.

RL: Do your figures come out of your experience as an artist?"
IN: Yes, for the most part. My structure of the figure is due to my study of it, but sometimes when I need a certain type of figure, I refer to a model or photo in a magazine.

RL: Do you ever find yourself using the same figure over and over again...getting into a pattern of cliché figures?
IN: No, that is I'm not conscious of it. What determines my composition of figures is usually the space they are confined in and what they do...just like in real life.

The Race © Irving Norman 1962
(Click on image for larger view).
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

RL: Do you see art as an ongoing process...tied up with life?
IN: Oh yes...there is no other source...even the most abstract work is related to life except it's related to certain segments, to certain philosophies, a certain way of thinking at a certain time in the development of a country. It's interesting...a current issue of the New York Times had a n interesting article on Russian painters of the beginning of this century. The collector who collected those works saw the beginnings of what came in the U.S. fifty years later. The style of Jackson Pollock, and others was evident then. The reason I mention this is because it shows the relationship between art and the state of society. The point that I'm trying to make is that contemporary abstract art and where it leads to is definitely an expression of the ideological state of the intellectual leadership of Western society. I wasn't wondering if it may not lead to the same conclusion that it led to in Russia...but people forget that. People stay away from that sort of thing. They think art comes from the heavens.

RL: Of course, you may be aware that work such as yours, i.e. of a more humanistic nature, is making some inroads today.
IN: I've heard of it, but I haven't see it.

RL: Oh yes it's emerging and it's refreshing to see. I think, however, that there is a great effort on the part of many elitist types museum curators to suppress it...I guess I shouldn't use that word.
IN: Oh no, you can use that word...it's valid.

RL: I think the big reason as to why work such as yours is rarely shown in the museums is that most curators don't understand it and what goes into it.
IN: That's possible, they have been brought up on a whole generation of the French School of art and it's existentialism. And when you get conditioned in a certain outlook, it takes a highly original person to break away from this and recognize truly original work.

More to follow next time.

Previous installments of this series can be found here:

Part 1

Part 2

See Irving Norman's paintings and drawings live and in person on exhibit now in Sacramento, CA. This rare opportunity to see some of the painter's best works, at The Crocker Museum ends January 7, 2007.

Note: If you're unable to see Norman's work in person you may want to purchase a copy of the book, Dark Metropolis. It's well written and has large, clear, vivid reproductions of Norman's art.

Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.

SEE THE TRUTH!

This weekend MoveOn.org is organizing nationwide screenings of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". This truly is a must-see film and although you may be busy with the holidays and life in general, I highly encourage you to join a houseparty and watch this urgent message about our planet.

There are currently 1700 screenings across the country so I'm sure there's one in your area. If there isn't you can sign up to host your own. The best holiday gift you can give yourself, and your loved ones is a vision on how to save our home planet. SIGN UP HERE!

(Note: I'm busy working to support these movie screening events so I've been unable to publish the next installment about Irving Norman. Please check back in a few days for more about his incredible artwork.)

Social Surrealist: Irving Norman Part 2

Meeting of the Elders 3 © Irving Norman 1977 (Click on image for larger view). All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.


Yesterday I went back to Sacramento to see the Irving Norman exhibit at the Crocker Museum again. Each time I see Norman's monumental paintings (most of which are larger than ten feet square), I'm awestruck by his technical abilities as a draftsman and painter. The detail in his artwork is simply astonishing and as an artist who's always struggled with realism, I find his work magical.

I was also struck by the timelessness of Norman's subject matter. He focused on the human condition, particularly the human body and how it's manipulated by environment and physical space. He also didn’t shy away from bold "liberal" even socialist political statements. I greatly admire his courage in that respect. Although it kept him from getting his proper due from the art world (to this day in fact), Norman knew that broadcasting the messages he was spreading was vastly more important than personal aggrandizement. He seemed to strive for nothing less than to save humanity from itself.



















Liberation War Prisoners © Irving Norman 1970-71 (Click on image for larger view). All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.


Most of his work deals with urban living, industrialization, economic inequality, and war. Sometimes more than one of these issues is covered in a single painting, no doubt because they overlap in reality. Over a span of 35 years, he painted about these themes. What's remarkable, and terribly upsetting, is noting how little progress we've made regarding these basic issues in the past half century. America is today embroiled in perhaps the most senseless war of all time. It appears we've learned nothing from the terrible mistakes of Vietnam and previous violent attempts to push other groups of people around.

Norman's commentary about the horrors and abuses of war, coupled with the financial benefits certain elites gain from it, are as relevant today as they were when he put them to canvas. Indeed it is painful to look at this bare truth straight on but it is also necessary. We'll keep smashing our heads against the same stone walls of power until we learn there are actually ways around the walls. Being too fearful or lazy to look for alternatives to war is no excuse for abdicating our responsibilities to future generations of human beings.






















Rebellions and Revolution © Irving Norman 1970 (Click on image for larger view). All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.


If "War is not the Answer" then we ourselves, the regular people of the world, must find another answer. It's obvious our "leaders" and the powerful think war works just fine thanksverymuch. Chevron and Bechtel corporations will never willingly give up their investments in war, so they must be forced to do so by us, their customers. The alternative, as we have seen in the tragic case of Iraq, is endless, destructive, inhumane war. We cannot allow that.






















Rebellions and Revolutions (Detail) © Irving Norman 1970 (Click on image for larger view). All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.


See Irving Norman's paintings and drawings live and in person on exhibit now in Sacramento, CA. This rare opportunity to see some of the painter's best works, at The Crocker Museum ends January 7, 2007.

Note: If you're unable to see Norman's work in person you may want to purchase a copy of the book, Dark Metropolis. It's well written and has large, clear, vivid reproductions of Norman's art.

Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.

Presenting Painter Irving Norman: Part 1

Hell of a Time © Irving Norman 1954
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

Several years ago I was making one of my rare visits to a museum. I never seem to find the time, and often a visit to a museum leaves me feeling depressed about art. I know that's an unusual reaction by an artist but that's what happens. Most often I find more exciting ideas and innovations in the museum bookstore than in the bowels of the institution itself. There have been several rare and notable exhibits that I had powerful reactions to. One of them was the first time I saw an Irving Norman painting.






















Hell of a Time (detail) © Irving Norman 1954
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

I was wandering through the under-funded Oakland Museum here in Northern California when I found myself in a far corner of the museum I'd never explored before. There I found, tucked away, possibly the very best painting in the entire museum. It's called "Hell of a Time" and was painted by Irving Norman, an artist I'd never heard of before.

The fact is Irving Norman's monumental social realism was mostly ignored by the art world during his lifetime and still doesn't get the respect and admiration it deserves. I'm pleased to report, however, that there is currently an excellent exhibit of many of his paintings, (and a few rare drawings) of this little-known Northern California political artist.

I will be presenting more images of Norman's work as well as some writings about him in the coming days. I hope you find his art as exciting and inspirational as I do. It's of course best to see in person but barring that, I'll try to give you an idea of what it's like as best I can.













Hell of a Time (detail) © Irving Norman 1954
All images in this series are presented with Hela Norman's permission.

See Irving Norman's paintings and drawings live and in person on exhibit now in Sacramento, CA. This rare opportunity to see some of the painter's best works, at The Crocker Museum ends January 7, 2007.

Please respect the work of the artists you see here and be sure to credit them when you share their artwork with others.

To share your opinion on this or any other post, please click the word "COMMENTS" below.