Norman Lewis

Norman Lewis (1909-1979)

Lewis, a lifetime resident of Harlem, first painted at the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts. He taught for the WPA/FAP and at institutions including the George Washington Carver School and the Art Students League. His early figurative social realist style transitioned in the 1940s to abstract expressionism, although his calligraphic marks often suggested masses of people. Lewis, politically active on behalf of artists and minorities, co-founded the Harlem Artists Guild, the Harlem Community Art Center, Spiral, and Cinque Gallery.

Important Source Material:

Gibson, Ann. “Two Worlds: African American Abstraction in New York at Mid-Century,” The Search for Freedom: African American Abstract Painting, 1945-1975. New York: Kenkeleba Gallery, 1991.

Kenkeleba Gallery. Norman Lewis: From the Harlem Renaissance to Abstraction. New York: Kenkeleba House, Inc., 1989.

Oral history interview with Norman Lewis, 1968 July 14, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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