Skip to main content

Irving Norman Art

American, Lithuanian, 1906-1989

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)

to
1
5
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
6
3
2
1
4
2
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
5
2
2
1
6
10,254
2,810
2,500
1,403
6
6
Artist: Irving Norman
American Street Scene
American Street Scene

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...

Category

Mid-20th Century Post-War Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

How Come
How Come

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 ...

Category

20th Century Surrealist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Oil

Man and Time
Man and Time

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...

Category

20th Century Surrealist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Oil

Snapshots
Snapshots

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...

Category

20th Century Surrealist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Oil

Bacchanal
Bacchanal

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...

Category

Mid-20th Century Post-War Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Striptease
Striptease

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...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Irving Norman Art

Materials

Pencil, Color Pencil

Related Items
Large Painting of Classic New York City in Rain with Figures by British Artist
Large Painting of Classic New York City in Rain with Figures by British Artist

Large Painting of Classic New York City in Rain with Figures by British Artist

By Angela Wakefield

Located in Preston, GB

Large Original Painting of a Classic 1990's Busy New York City Scene in the Rain, with Yellow Taxis, Cars and Figures, by British Urban Landscape Artist, Angela Wakefield. This is a ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Irving Norman Art

Materials

Gesso, Acrylic, Oil, Mixed Media, Cotton Canvas, Paint, Linen, Canvas

“Autumn Landscape, c. 1910” American Impressionist New England Fall Oil Signed
“Autumn Landscape, c. 1910” American Impressionist New England Fall Oil Signed

“Autumn Landscape, c. 1910” American Impressionist New England Fall Oil Signed

Located in Yardley, PA

Warm air seems to move through this scene as the eye wanders along a gentle swale dotted with granite boulders, low stone walls and scrubby autumn color. A ribbon of meadow pulls us ...

Category

Early 20th Century American Impressionist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Stylish, Vintage 1940s Fashion Design, Women's Dresses, Marshall Field & Co.
A Stylish, Vintage 1940s Fashion Design, Women's Dresses, Marshall Field & Co.

A Stylish, Vintage 1940s Fashion Design, Women's Dresses, Marshall Field & Co.

Located in Chicago, IL

A stylish, vintage, 1940s fashion study featuring an elegant design for women's dresses (day & evening wear). Most likely a design study for a print advertisement for the famed Chicago Department store, Marshall Field & Co. Inscribed: "Above- Irene Castle inspired this dinner gown...

Category

1940s American Modern Irving Norman Art

Materials

Paper, Pencil, Color Pencil

Original Post-War Painting of Mournes from Duldrum Ireland by Modern Artist
Original Post-War Painting of Mournes from Duldrum Ireland by Modern Artist

Original Post-War Painting of Mournes from Duldrum Ireland by Modern Artist

By Denis Thornton

Located in Preston, GB

Original Post-War Oil Painting of Mournes from Dundrum Ireland by 20th Century Modern Artist, Denis Thornton (1937-1999) Art measures 30 x 20 inches Frame measures 36 x 26 inches (...

Category

1980s Post-War Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Cotton, Oil

“Quebec City, 1853” Panoramic Landscape View, Cityscape, Canada Signed Oil
“Quebec City, 1853” Panoramic Landscape View, Cityscape, Canada Signed Oil

“Quebec City, 1853” Panoramic Landscape View, Cityscape, Canada Signed Oil

By Edmund C. Coates

Located in Yardley, PA

“Quebec City, 1853” by Edmund C. Coates (American, 1816-1871). A luminous 19th-century view of Quebec City by the American painter Edmund C. Coates, known for his detailed Hudson Ri...

Category

1850s Hudson River School Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

French school Pastoral Landscape Cows, sheep Anonym oil painting Barbizon school
French school Pastoral Landscape Cows, sheep Anonym oil painting Barbizon school

French school Pastoral Landscape Cows, sheep Anonym oil painting Barbizon school

Located in Zofingen, AG

➡️ Pastoral landscape⬅️ ⏩unsigned⏪ ⭐Medium:⭐ Oil on canvas ⭐Technique: ⭐Impasto painting with expressive brushwork. ⭐Size:⭐38x51cm / 15x20.1 inch with frame 49x62cm / 19.2x24....

Category

Late 19th Century Barbizon School Irving Norman Art

Materials

Gesso, Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Early 20th century Impressionist English Cottage Garden landscape
Early 20th century Impressionist English Cottage Garden landscape

Early 20th century Impressionist English Cottage Garden landscape

By Alfred Fontville de Breanski

Located in Woodbury, CT

Alfred Fontville De Breanski (1877–1957) “English Cottage Garden”, circa 1920 Oil on canvas Signed lower right This richly coloured and romantic vision of rural England by Alfred F...

Category

1920s Impressionist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sly (hunt dog ear surrealism scale animal men best friend nostalgia vintage art)

Sly (hunt dog ear surrealism scale animal men best friend nostalgia vintage art)

By Rudolf Kosow

Located in Quebec, Quebec

keywords; surrealism, hunting dog, humour, uncanny, animals, prussian blue, emerald green, earth tones, oil painting, figurative painting, strangeness, contemporary surrealistic, uns...

Category

2010s Surrealist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Penobscot” Ship Portrait Sidewheeler Steamboat Paddle Steamer Oil on Canvas
“Penobscot” Ship Portrait Sidewheeler Steamboat Paddle Steamer Oil on Canvas

“Penobscot” Ship Portrait Sidewheeler Steamboat Paddle Steamer Oil on Canvas

Located in Yardley, PA

A wonderful realistic portrait of the Penobscot, a mid-19th century coastal sidewheel steamer, rendered in Cameron’s hallmark marine portrait style - technically meticulous, historically informed, and visually serene. Executed with crisp linework and a soft, luminous palette, the ship is shown in profile navigating calm Atlantic waters under both steam and sail, her red paddle box emblazoned boldly with her name. Commissioned in 1843 by Menemon Sanford’s Steamship Line and constructed in New York, the Penobscot was a near twin to her sister ship, the Kennebec, but became especially prized for her seaworthiness. Measuring 228 feet in length with a 48-foot beam and twin 14-foot paddlewheels, she carried schooner rigging fore and aft, providing the added stability necessary for coastal and offshore passages. Initially assigned to the Maine coastal excursion routes, she would later be reassigned to the elite New York–Philadelphia line and eventually sold and renamed Norfolk for pre-Civil War service along the southern coast. This work is oil on canvas and is signed in the lower right. It is housed in its original black frame and retains the artist’s description of the ship on the reverse. Size: 22 inches tall by 44 inches wide (painting) 26 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 1 inch deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection; Acquired from the above About the artist: A Delaware artist, Scott Cameron paints the simple elegance of the America’s Cup races, serene coastal marsh scenes, timeless landscape vistas and historic steamboats in a style reminiscent of the era in which they reigned. An admirer of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine School of painters, Scott has combined the detail and quiet stillness of that School in his landscapes with the Luminist School’s sense of light glowing from within. A soft gentle atmosphere seems to fall over each scene adding to the peacefulness of the setting, and a sense of a time gone by. His America’s Cup scenes capture the action at a moment in time, allowing the beauty of the wind-filled sails to become the central design element of each painting. Scott Cameron has exhibited his oil paintings in numerous national and regional shows from the Mystic Seaport Museum to solo and group shows in some of the foremost galleries throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Favorite painting locations are the waterways and coastal inlets of Martha’s Vineyard and Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the gentle rolling landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Meticulous research is behind every historic steamboat and America’s Cup painting...

Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Winter - Fontainbleau Forest - Impressionist Oil, Landscape by Victor Vignon
Winter - Fontainbleau Forest - Impressionist Oil, Landscape by Victor Vignon

Winter - Fontainbleau Forest - Impressionist Oil, Landscape by Victor Vignon

By Victor Alfred Paul Vignon

Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Signed figures in a landscape oil on canvas circa 1870 by French impressionist painter Victor Alfred Paul Vignon. The work depicts a woman carrying a basket with a young child beside her walking along a snowy path in a Fontainebleau Forest. This early work by Vignon was painted whilst he was under the tutelage of Camille Corot in the period between 1869 and 1870 . The work shows a mother and child in the forest at Fontainebleau in winter. Many painters in Vignon's circle such as Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Bazille visited this area to paint in the late 1860's and the early 1870's. Signature: Signed lower left Dimensions: Framed: 23"x25.5" Unframed: 13.5"x16" Provenance: Galerie Commeter - Hamburg c. 1920 French exhibition customs stamps verso His mother has been incorrectly identified as the writer Claude Vignon...

Category

1870s Impressionist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Previously Available Items
My World and Yours
My World and Yours

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...

Category

Mid-20th Century Post-War Irving Norman Art

Materials

Graphite

NEW SYNTHESIS

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...

Category

1940s Surrealist Irving Norman Art

Materials

Color Pencil, Graphite

Irving Norman art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Irving Norman art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Irving Norman in paint, oil paint, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the post-war style. Not every interior allows for large Irving Norman art, so small editions measuring 14 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Nathan Oliveira, Paul Wonner, and Abraham Straski. Irving Norman art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,400 and tops out at $800,000, while the average work can sell for $150,000.

Artists Similar to Irving Norman