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)
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
$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
$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
$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
$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
$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
$30,865
H 28.5 in W 28.5 in D 3 in
Pierre Montezin large French Impressionist painting harvesting scene and poplars
By PIERRE EUGÈNE MONTEZIN, 1874 - 1946
Located in Harkstead, GB
Montezin's dazzling display of brushwork captures the effects of the sunlight on the water and the glittering leaves of the poplar trees. A masterwork by the artist presented in the ...
Canvas, Oil
Newlyn Harbour: Contemporary Oil Painting
By Simeon Stafford
Located in Brecon, Powys
This is an archetypal Stafford painting. Cheery tugs and Cornish fishing boats bobbing about in the harbour as they busy themselves with their days routine and the townsfolk watching...
Canvas, Oil
$850
H 5.52 in W 4.73 in D 0.4 in
A Vibrant, Abstract Modern Studio Interior Scene, Seated Female Nude with Cat
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Striking Modernist Abstract Studio Scene by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). Depicting a female nude model seated on a blanket beside a black cat in a colorf...
Oil, Board, Canvas
$7,950
H 25.5 in W 31.5 in D 2 in
“Florenz (Florence), c. 1910” Post-Impressionist Italy Tuscany Landscape Oil
Located in Yardley, PA
An exceptional post-impressionist view of Florence, Italy by Carl Schmitz-Pleis (1877-1943). In the spring of 1910 Schmitz-Pleis and fellow friend/artist Walter Hugo Ophey travelled...
Canvas, Oil
$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
$235
H 24 in W 20 in D 0.13 in
A Finely Drawn, 1950s Mid-Century Modern Figure Study, Standing Male Nude Model
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Very Finely Drawn Mid-Century Modern Figure Study of a Standing Young Male Nude Model (Torso) by Notable Chicago Modern Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). A well executed stu...
Graphite, Paper
$7,500
H 11.25 in W 16.5 in D 2.5 in
“Lake in the Adirondacks” by Levi Wells Prentice 19th C. American Landscape
By Levi Wells Prentice
Located in Yardley, PA
About this work: “Lake in the Adirondacks” by Levi Wells Prentice (American, 1851-1935). A charming and finely detailed Adirondacks landscape by Prentice. This composition looks out...
Canvas, Oil
$11,199Sale Price|20% Off
H 19.69 in W 24.02 in
Surrealist Mineral Landscape Spanish Catalan Oil Canvas Painting Dalí Circle art
By Antoni Pitxot
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
Dalí Circle Surrealist Mineral Landscape, Spanish Catalan Oil Painting Artist: Antoni Pitxot Soler / Antoni Pichot Soler (Figueres, 1934 – 2015) Title: Surrealist Mineral Landscape Date: 1985 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 50 × 61 cm / 19.7 × 24 in Framing: Unframed Signature: Signed and dated lower right Condition: Very good overall condition. Stable canvas and paint layer. Rich surface texture, visible impasto and original brushwork. Description Powerful surrealist oil painting by Antoni Pitxot Soler, one of the most important Catalan artists connected to Salvador Dalí’s inner circle and a key figure in the visual universe of Cadaqués and Figueres. Painted in 1985, this work belongs to Pitxot’s mature period and presents one of his most recognizable subjects: a dreamlike mineral landscape built from stones, fragments, shells, fossil-like forms and metamorphic shapes. The composition seems suspended between landscape, archaeology and hallucination, where inert matter becomes almost alive. The painting is especially strong visually. The lower section is constructed through a dense accumulation of sculptural forms, painted with thick, expressive brushwork and a refined chromatic range of blues, ochres, pinks, whites, greys and earthy tones. Above them, a floating organic form...
Oil
Untitled (Orange in a Broken Glass) - Oil Paint - 1985
Located in Roma, IT
A surreal and imaginative composition featuring a paper boat carrying animals and toy-like figures. Bright colors and playful symbolism evoke childhood wonder, while the reflective s...
Oil
Desert Goddess / - Transcendental Realism -
Located in Berlin, DE
Karin Hauke, Desert Goddess, 1976. Oil on wood, 70 x 50 cm (image size), 73 cm x 53 cm (frame), signed “K. HAUKE” lower right and dated “[19]76.” - Small flaking in the lower area, o...
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