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)
$200,000
How Come
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"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 ...
Oil
American Street Scene
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Irving Norman. "American Street Scene" is a macabre social surrealism city scape, oil on canvas in a bold palette of reds, blues, and yellows by artist Irving Norman. T...
Canvas, Oil
$125,000
Bacchanal
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
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...
Canvas, Oil
$150,000
Snapshots
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"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...
Oil
$100,000
Man and Time
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Man and Time" is an American surrealist oil on canvas painting by Irving Norman in 1986. The artwork is 58 x 30 inches and 59 1/8 x 31 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches with the frame, weighing le...
Oil
Striptease
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
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...
Pencil, Color Pencil
$1,200
H 17 in W 13 in D 1.25 in
"View of the Empire State NYC in Snow" Impressionistic Ashcan School Style
By Cindy Shaoul
Located in New York, NY
An impressionistic depiction of a figure in the snow with cars and buildings in the busy City Streets. The Empire State Building is portrayed in the background as the snow filled str...
Canvas, Oil, Board
$3,500
H 33 in W 28 in D 3 in
Stowe Vermont Village Sleigh Ride, Mid Century Winter Figurative Landscape
By Walter Thomas Sacks
Located in Soquel, CA
Stowe Vermont Village Sleigh Ride - Mid Century Winter Figurative Landscape A bright, crisp morning and a sleigh ride through new snow in Stowe, Vermont...
Canvas, Oil
$5,000
H 30 in W 24 in
"Aquinnah Fog" oil painting of red brick lighthouse in nature shining light
By Rob Brooks
Located in Edgartown, MA
From an incandescent sunset on Long Island Sound to an iconic pop-kitsch ice storage bin at the neighborhood corner store, Rob Brooks offers us a visual journey from the real to surr...
Canvas, Oil
$1,950
H 12 in W 16 in
Antique 19th century English fishing vessels In the English Channel
By William Henry Williamson
Located in Woodbury, CT
William Henry Williamson (British, fl. mid to late 19th Century) Fishing Boats off the English Coast Oil on canvas, signed lower left Circa 1870–80 Presented in a period gilt frame ...
Canvas, Oil
$185
H 24 in W 18 in D 0.13 in
A Finely Drawn, 1930s Art Deco Modern Figure Study, Kneeling Male Nude Model
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Finely Drawn, 1930s Art Deco Modern Figure Study of a Kneeling Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An early graphite drawing by Haydon demon...
Paper, Graphite
$165
H 16 in W 12 in D 0.13 in
A Stylish, Vintage 1940s Woman's Fashion Study, Design for a Formal Evening Gown
Located in Chicago, IL
A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for a woman's evening gown. Artwork size: 11 x 8 1/2 inches. Colored pencil and pencil on paper. Archivally ma...
Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil
$95
H 16 in W 12 in D 0.13 in
A Stylish, Vintage 1940s Woman's Fashion Study, Cover Design for Hattie Carnegie
Located in Chicago, IL
A stylish, vintage, 1940s woman's fashion study featuring an elegant graphic design for a portfolio cover featuring ladies resort clothes by Hattie Carnegie. Artwork size: 11 x 8...
Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil, Watercolor
$250
H 10 in W 8 in
Chapel and houses along a lake, New England Landscape - American School, 19th C
Located in Middletown, NY
Watercolor and pencil on buff wove watercolor paper, 10 x 8 inches (255 x 203 mm). In good condition with overall minor toning. Some watercolor paint splatters on the verso, contem...
Watercolor, Pencil
Meditation
By Willard Dixon
Located in Burlingame, CA
Willard Dixon is widely recognized for his calm, contemplative landscapes and skyscapes, paintings that hold stillness, clarity, and a quiet reverence for nature. In this exhibition,...
Canvas, Oil
$3,000
H 27.75 in W 33.75 in D 1.5 in
"Autumn Landscape" Colorful Pastoral Landscape Oil Painting on Canvas Framed
By Robert Waltsak
Located in New York, NY
A wonderful impressionist pastoral landscape in the Autumn season with beautiful color tones throughout. Waltsak has portrayed this piece in a most intimate, yet energetic way, and h...
Canvas, Oil
$4,000Sale Price|20% Off
H 34.75 in W 42.25 in D 1.5 in
"Mountain Landscape" Impressionist Oil Painting on Canvas of Church & Village
By Jean Salabet
Located in New York, NY
A beautiful oil on canvas painting by the French artist, Jean Salabet. Salabet was a Parisian painter known for his colorful cityscapes depicting the times of his generation. But als...
Canvas, Oil
$17,800
H 17.5 in W 21.25 in
Orientalist Painting "Constantine (Algeria) 1893" Claude Firmin-Goy (1864-1944)
Located in SANTA FE, NM
Constantine (Algeria) Claude Firmin-Goy (1864-1944) Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 11 3/4 x 15 1/2 (17 1/2 x 21 1/4 frame) inches This bright and luminous work by the Av...
Canvas, Oil
My World and Yours
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A drawing by Irving Norman. "My World and Yours" is a macabre social surrealism city scape, graphite on paper in a black and white palette by artist Irving No...
Graphite
NEW SYNTHESIS
By Irving Norman
Located in Los Angeles, CA
"NEW SYNTHESIS" GRAPHITE AND COLORED PENICL ON PAPER SIGNED, DATED 1947 ILLUSTRATED IN THE BOOK ON THE ARTIST "DARK METROPOLIS" 39.5 X 29.5 INCHES Irving Norman 1906-1889 Born Irving Noachowitz in 1906 in Vilna, which at the time was under Russia's control, Irving Norman emigrated to the United States in 1923, settling first in New York's Lower East, where he trained as a barber, and then in Los Angeles, where he opened his own barber shop in 1934. In 1938, Norman joined the Abraham Lincoln battalion of the International Brigade...
Color Pencil, Graphite