Apr 03 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2698 -

Sale 2698 - Lot 25

Estimate: $ 200,000 - $ 300,000
NORMAN LEWIS (1909 - 1979)
Untitled.

Oil on linen canvas, 1954. 1065x1127 mm; 42x50 inches. Signed and dated, lower right.

Provenance
Joan Murray Weissman, New York.
Private collection, New Jersey.
Swann Galleries, February 6, 2007, lot 73.
Private collection, Florida.
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

This significant 1954 New York oil painting by Norman Lewis was originally owned by Joan Murray, who was Lewis's partner from 1946–52. Murray, a psychology graduate student at the time, was an observer of his practice in the New York School. Murray wrote an introductory essay for Norman Lewis's 1951 solo exhibition at the Willard Gallery.

This atmospheric canvas is a beautiful abstraction of nature and a mid-career example of Lewis's distinctive brand of Abstract Expressionism. 1954, the year of this work's creation, was an important year for the artist's abstract work: he became the first African American artist to win the Popular Prize at the 1955 Carnegie International Exhibition, for his 1954 painting Migrating Birds.

Also in This Catalogue