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Irving Norman
Big City

1948 - 1949

$105,000
£79,714.21
€91,176.05
CA$146,700.23
A$163,162.67
CHF 85,198.48
MX$1,985,516.19
NOK 1,088,114.58
SEK 1,020,459.51
DKK 680,481.81
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About the Item

A painting by Irving Norman. "Big City" is a social surrealism city scape, watercolor on paper in a dark palette of reds, blues, and yellows by artist Irving Norman. The artwork is unsigned. The Lithuanian-American artist Irving Norman was a social surrealist who painted large-scale and highly detailed critiques of contemporary life with hopes that viewers would consider the consequences of their actions and change their behavior. Influenced by the dire conditions of the Great Depression, his massive canvases feature armies of clone-like figures behaving in the clockwork manner in which they have been programmed. He moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1934 before helping to defend the Spanish Republic from the fascist Franco dictatorship. He survived the Spanish Civil War and in 1939 settling on Catalina Island off the Southern California coast, where he began drawing and painting from the atrocities he had witnessed. In 1940, he moved to San Francisco and had a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art two years later. He then traveled to Mexico City and saw the murals of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros before moving to New York City to studying at the Art Students League from 1946 to 1947. He returned to San Francisco in the late 1940s. In 1988, fire destroyed his home, studio, artwork, and personal papers. Provenance: Moses and Ruth Helen Lasky Private Collection, California Exhibition: Dark Metropolis: Irving Norman’s Social Surrealism, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, September 23, 2006 - January 7, 2007; Pasadena Museum of California Art, January 26 - May 13, 2007; Nora Eccles Harrison Museum, Logan, Utah, June 5 - October 13, 2007
  • Creator:
    Irving Norman (1920, American, Lithuanian)
  • Creation Year:
    1948 - 1949
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 80 in (203.2 cm)Width: 29 in (73.66 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Palm Desert, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 334911stDibs: LU938657172

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Bacchanal
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A painting by Irving Norman. "Bacchanal" is a macabre social surrealism painting, oil on canvas in a dark palette of reds, blues, and blacks by artist Irving Norman. The artwork is u...
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Striptease
By Irving Norman
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A drawing by Irving Norman. "Striptease" is a macabre cultural commentary drawing, pencil and color pencil on paper executed in a dark palette of blacks, grays, and reds by social su...
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Shrapnel
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A drawing by Irving Norman. "Shrapnel" is a social surrealist drawing, pen and ink on artists board in black and white by Post-War artist Irving Norm...
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How Come
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"How Come" is a Modern surrealist oil on canvas painting by Irving Norman in 1968. The artwork is 90 x 60 inches and 91 1/4 x 61 1/2 x 1 5/8 inches with the fram, weighing less than ...
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