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Irving NormanSnapshots1968
1968
$150,000
£114,115.51
€133,436.04
CA$209,781.67
A$235,665.90
CHF 125,418.69
MX$2,914,099.35
NOK 1,528,240.96
SEK 1,477,589.70
DKK 995,308.15
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About the Item
"Snapshots" is a modern surrealist oil on canvas painting by Irving Norman in 1986. The artwork is 40 x 90 inches and 41 3/8 x 91 1/4 x 1 5/8 inches with the frame, weighing less than 50 lbs. It is signed and dated lower right, "I.N. '68".
Norman's surrealist paintings transport viewers into dystopian realms where human figures meld with machinery, creating haunting landscapes of industrialized chaos and existential reflection. This painting uses a series of vignettes or "snapshots" of human couples in various states of health and vigor. The grotesque nature of some of the bodies is juxtaposed in the bright swimsuits as children play under an ominous sky. These humans depict various aspects of modern life, critiquing social norms and highlighting issues such as consumerism, alienation, and loneliness.
Provenance:
Private Collection
Literature:
Scott A. Shields & Ray Day, "Dark Metropolis: Irving Norman’s Social Surrealism", Sacramento, CA, 2006, pg. 213
- Creator:Irving Norman (1920, American, Lithuanian)
- Creation Year:1968
- Dimensions:Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 90 in (228.6 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Palm Desert, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 460901stDibs: LU9314792502
Irving Norman
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, Norman’s 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.
Norman survived the Spanish Civil War and in 1939 settled 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. Norman 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 study at the Art Students League from 1946 to 1947. He returned to San Francisco in the late 1940s. In 1988, fire destroyed Norman’s home, studio, artwork and personal papers.
Find original Irving Norman paintings and prints on 1stDibs.
(Biography provided by Heather James Fine Art)
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