Weekend Glimpse Norman Lewis
Saturday, June 6, 2020

Norman Lewis, Easter Rehearsal, 1959. Pastel and ink on paper. Joyner/Giuffrida Collection. Photographed at the Smart Museum, Rachel Cohen.
This work in pastel and ink by Norman Lewis caught my attention one day at the Smart Museum of Art.

The story wears us down. Lewis grew up in Harlem, his parents were Bermudian, he studied with Augusta Savage. He worked alongside Pollock in the WPA and showed with Mark Rothko and went to the meetings of the Abstract Expressionists, he founded the gallery Cinque with Romare Bearden and Ernest Crichlow, he had shows in his lifetime at MoMA and the Whitney, but his work was not discussed in the official histories of Abstract Expressionism.

Abstract Expressionism was so much bigger and more meaningful than it was allowed to be.

[Photo magnified and cropped]

[Photo magnified and cropped]
I saw this work for a few minutes one day -- I loved the feathered density of the lines, and the color that hangs across it like a curtain or a sky.

tags
- blue (13)
- green (12)
- Pissarro (12)
- Delaney (11)
- Morisot (10)
- gray (9)
- Monet (9)
- (8)
- white (8)
- black (7)
- Degas (7)
- landscape (7)
- Manet (7)
- Monet (7)
- father (6)
- photography (6)
- red (6)
- yellow (6)
- Cézanne (6)
- death (6)
- green (6)
- Sargent (6)
- Pissarro (5)
- time (5)
- watercolor (5)
- blue (5)
- father (5)
- white (5)
- yellow (5)
- Cézanne (4)
- orange (4)
- Renoir (4)
- still life (4)
- Cassatt (4)
- Constable (4)
- Degas (4)
- landscape (4)
- photography (4)
- red (4)
- sculpture (4)
- Vuillard (4)
- watercolor (4)
- air (3)
- Cezanne (3)
- Chicago (3)
- drawing (3)
- installation (3)
- iphone (3)
- Jean Renoir (3)
- purple (3)
- water (3)
- winter (3)
- air (3)
- Berenson (3)
- black (3)
- children (3)
- Czanne (3)
- daughter (3)
- El Greco (3)
- garden (3)
- Giacometti (3)
- Gorky (3)
- gray (3)
- Jean Renoir (3)
- Manet (3)
- Rembrandt (3)
- Renoir (3)
- series (3)
- sky (3)
- snow (3)
- Tara Geer (3)
- time (3)
- Van Gogh (3)
- Venice (3)
- Abstract Expressionism (2)
- Art Institute (2)
- Baldwin (2)
- children (2)
- Corot (2)
- dance (2)
- Daubigny (2)
- Duchamp (2)
- garden (2)
- Gardner Museum (2)
- Gwendolyn Brooks (2)
- hands (2)
- hat (2)
- Large Bathers (2)
- Mexico City (2)
- Morisot (2)
- mourning (2)
- movement (2)
- pink (2)
- public art (2)
- sculpture (2)
- self-portrait (2)
- serial (2)
- series (2)
- Smart Museum of Art (2)
- son (2)
- technology (2)
- texture (2)
- tree (2)
- Turner (2)
- Une Semaine de Bonté (2)
- women artists (2)
- Abstract Expressionism (2)
- abstraction (2)
- Austen (2)
- autobiography (2)
- baby (2)
- Baldwin (2)
- Barbizon (2)
- bedroom (2)
- Boudin (2)
- Calasso (2)
- Chicago (2)
- Corot (2)
- dance (2)
- Dewey (2)
- drawing (2)
- Ernst (2)
- eyes (2)
- Faith Ringgold (2)
- Gardner (2)
- Geer (2)
- hands (2)
- Hokusai (2)
- Large Bathers (2)
- light (2)
- line (2)
- London (2)
- Luiselli (2)
- Margot McMahon (2)
- Michelangelo (2)
- Mitchell (2)
- Mondrian (2)
- photo-montage (2)
- portrait (2)
- Poussin (2)
- Rewald (2)
- Rocca (2)
- self-portrait (2)
- serial (2)
- Smart Museum of Art (2)
- son (2)
- still life (2)
- Summation (2)
- summer (2)
- technology (2)
- Tiepolo (2)
- Turner (2)
- vegetation (2)
- walk (2)
- Waxman (2)
- winter (2)
- women artists (2)
- Xu Longsen (2)
- 1879 (1)
- abstract expressionist (1)
- abstraction (1)
- acquisition (1)
- Alice Monet (1)
- Alvarez Bravo (1)
- animals (1)
- Ann Arbor (1)
- arcade (1)
- Arena Chapel (1)
- baby (1)
- Bazille (1)
- bedroom (1)
- beige (1)
- Benjamin (1)
- between (1)
- Black Death (1)
- blue ink (1)
- boats (1)
- bodhisattva (1)
- Bonnard (1)
- Boston (1)
- Botticelli (1)
- Boudin (1)
- Bracquemond (1)
- Brettell (1)
- Brooks (1)
- brouwn (1)
- brown (1)
- buff (1)
- candied fruits (1)
- canvas (1)
- capitalism (1)
- carbon (1)
- Cassatt (1)
- Cathedrals (1)
- celadon (1)
- chalk (1)
- Chardin (1)
- Chekhov (1)
- child (1)
- Chinese painting (1)
- city (1)
- Cleveland (1)
- collections (1)
- commerce (1)
- Courbet (1)
- Crivelli (1)
- crowd (1)
- Dalai Lama (1)
- Dante (1)
- daughter (1)
- Davis (1)
- death (1)
- DeFeo (1)
- Degan (1)
- Delacroix (1)
- dogs (1)
- door (1)
- Doty (1)
- dream (1)
- Eastern Wei dynasty (1)
- Edo period (1)
- environment (1)
- Ernst (1)
- essay (1)
- etching (1)
- expressive (1)
- fall (1)
- family (1)
- Fatin-Latour (1)
- Fischli and Weiss (1)
- flaneur (1)
- Florence (1)
- flowers (1)
- Fogg (1)
- Frankenthaler (1)
- fresco (1)
- Freud (1)
- friend (1)
- gesture (1)
- Giacometti (1)
- Giotto (1)
- Gorky (1)
- gouache (1)
- grasshopper (1)
- grid (1)
- hand (1)
- haystacks (1)
- Herbert (1)
- Hiroshige (1)
- history (1)
- horses (1)
- Hortense Fiquet (1)
- Houses of Parliament (1)
- Il Giovane (1)
- impressionism (1)
- Ingres (1)
- ink (1)
- ivory (1)
- James Lord (1)
- Jan Brueghel (1)
- Japanese prints (1)
- Jongkind (1)
- Judd (1)
- Julie Manet (1)
- Jungerman (1)
- jute (1)
- Kienholz (1)
- Knoxville (1)
- Knoxville Museum of Art (1)
- Korea (1)
- Kushner (1)
- Kyoto (1)
- Leo Stein (1)
- library (1)
- light (1)
- lilac (1)
- linen (1)
- Lippi (1)
- Lucien (1)
- Mallarmé (1)
- manuscript (1)
- market (1)
- medals (1)
- memoir (1)
- Met (1)
- Metropolitan (1)
- miniature (1)
- Mondrian (1)
- money (1)
- mortality (1)
- mural (1)
- Museum of Fine Arts (1)
- Nadar (1)
- nahan (1)
- night (1)
- object (1)
- Oldenburg (1)
- pen (1)
- Persian (1)
- Piero (1)
- pigment (1)
- plants (1)
- plates (1)
- plums (1)
- Ponge (1)
- portrait (1)
- poverty (1)
- print (1)
- prints (1)
- protest (1)
- red chalk (1)
- Rembrandt (1)
- resolution (1)
- retrospect (1)
- Rewald (1)
- Ringgold (1)
- Sargent (1)
- Schuyler (1)
- scripts (1)
- Scrovegni (1)
- sea (1)
- Seine (1)
- self-portraits (1)
- shade (1)
- shadow (1)
- Siena (1)
- Sisley (1)
- skin (1)
- sky (1)
- snow (1)
- South Side (1)
- Spain (1)
- spend (1)
- spring (1)
- stairs (1)
- states (1)
- statue (1)
- Stieglitz (1)
- stolen (1)
- story (1)
- structure (1)
- summer (1)
- sunlight (1)
- Surrealism (1)
- Suzanne Valadon (1)
- sweetness (1)
- table (1)
- tapestry (1)
- task (1)
- teaching (1)
- tide (1)
- Tokaido road (1)
- translation (1)
- translucence (1)
- trees (1)
- Une Semaine de Bonte (1)
- Valéry (1)
- Van Gogh (1)
- Venice (1)
- voice (1)
- walking (1)
- wall (1)
- Walter Hopps (1)
- wash (1)
- wealth (1)
- weaving (1)
- Whistler (1)
- window (1)
- Wineapple (1)
- wood (1)
- 1879 (1)
- acquisition (1)
- Alexander Calder (1)
- Alice Monet (1)
- Alvarez Bravo (1)
- Ann Arbor (1)
- Anni Albers (1)
- arcade (1)
- Arena Chapel (1)
- Asawa (1)
- Bahadur (1)
- Baudelaire (1)
- Bazille (1)
- Beckmann (1)
- Benjamin (1)
- between (1)
- bodhisattva (1)
- Bonnard (1)
- Boston (1)
- Bracquemond (1)
- Braque (1)
- Breton (1)
- brown (1)
- Calle (1)
- Calvino (1)
- candied fruits (1)
- capitalism (1)
- carbon (1)
- catalog of time (1)
- Cathedrals (1)
- Chekhov (1)
- Choucair (1)
- cities (1)
- Cleveland (1)
- close looking (1)
- cloth (1)
- collections (1)
- color (1)
- commerce (1)
- concrete (1)
- Cornell (1)
- Courbet (1)
- crane (1)
- criticism (1)
- Cubism (1)
- Dante (1)
- Daubigny (1)
- day (1)
- De Kooning (1)
- de Waal (1)
- DeFeo (1)
- Degan (1)
- Delacroix (1)
- Donaldson (1)
- door (1)
- Dow (1)
- dream (1)
- Duchamp (1)
- Durand-Ruel (1)
- Eastern Wei dynasty (1)
- edge (1)
- Edo (1)
- election (1)
- elegy (1)
- etching (1)
- expressive (1)
- Fatin-Latour (1)
- Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas (1)
- film (1)
- flaneur (1)
- flowers (1)
- Fogg (1)
- Fogg Museum (1)
- form (1)
- formal (1)
- Francis (1)
- Fred Moten (1)
- fresco (1)
- Freud (1)
- friend (1)
- Fuji (1)
- gesture (1)
- Giotto (1)
- gold (1)
- gouache (1)
- Goya (1)
- group (1)
- Guibert (1)
- hand (1)
- Harvard Art Museums (1)
- hat (1)
- haystacks (1)
- Hemon (1)
- heron (1)
- history (1)
- horizon (1)
- horses (1)
- Hortense Fiquet (1)
- Hoschedé (1)
- hours (1)
- Houses of Parliament (1)
- Hunter (1)
- Impressionism (1)
- Indira Freitas Johnson (1)
- industry (1)
- Ingres (1)
- ink (1)
- iphone (1)
- Iran (1)
- ivory (1)
- James Lord (1)
- Japan (1)
- Japanese (1)
- Jennie C. Jones (1)
- Jongkind (1)
- Judd (1)
- Kōrin (1)
- Kensmil (1)
- Kienholz (1)
- Korin (1)
- Kushner (1)
- Kyoto (1)
- lens (1)
- Leo Stein (1)
- Lewis (1)
- Lorenzetti (1)
- Lucien (1)
- MaBazille (1)
- Malangatana (1)
- Mallarmé (1)
- marble (1)
- market (1)
- Marshall (1)
- materials (1)
- Maupassant (1)
- Max Ernst (1)
- medals (1)
- memoir (1)
- Menil Museum (1)
- Met (1)
- MFA (1)
- migration (1)
- Millet (1)
- miniature (1)
- minimalism (1)
- MNBAQ (1)
- model (1)
- Moillon (1)
- money (1)
- mortality (1)
- movement (1)
- Museum of Fine Arts (1)
- n (1)
- Nadar (1)
- negative space (1)
- object (1)
- observation (1)
- ochre (1)
- Oldenburg (1)
- olive (1)
- orange (1)
- ornament (1)
- palette (1)
- pencil (1)
- Piero (1)
- pigment (1)
- plants (1)
- plates (1)
- plein air (1)
- poetry (1)
- Pollock (1)
- Ponge (1)
- Pope.L (1)
- prints (1)
- purple (1)
- rain (1)
- reflection (1)
- resolution (1)
- return (1)
- Ringgold (1)
- Rome (1)
- Rorty (1)
- rose (1)
- Rousseau (1)
- scale (1)
- Schuyler (1)
- Scrovegni (1)
- self-portraits (1)
- shade (1)
- shadow (1)
- silence (1)
- Sisley (1)
- skin (1)
- Sontag (1)
- Sophie (1)
- Spain (1)
- spend (1)
- spider (1)
- spring (1)
- states (1)
- stealth (1)
- Stieglitz (1)
- Stockholder (1)
- Streetscape (1)
- structure (1)
- sunset (1)
- Surrealism (1)
- Suzanne Valadon (1)
- sweetness (1)
- Tang Chang (1)
- task (1)
- teaching (1)
- texture (1)
- thieves (1)
- tide (1)
- tiger (1)
- translation (1)
- translucence (1)
- tree (1)
- trees (1)
- Une Semaine de Bonté (1)
- Une Semaine de Bonte (1)
- Valéry (1)
- Vidura Jang Bahadur (1)
- voice (1)
- Vostell (1)
- Wa Lehulere (1)
- Walker (1)
- Walter Hopps (1)
- Warhol (1)
- water (1)
- weekend (1)
- Whistler (1)
- wind (1)
- window (1)
- Wineapple (1)
- woman (1)
- writing (1)
- Yokoku (1)
- Zola (1)