People, Locations, Episodes

Norman Lewis, Painting Artist born

Norman Lewis

Norman Lewis was born on this date in 1909. He was a Black painter.

Norman Wilfred Lewis was born in Harlem, New York. He attended New York Vocational High School, studying commercial design. During the 1930s, he was inspired by the works of sculptor Augusta Savage and became part of Harlem’s “306 Group,” known for its address.  Diego Rivera's The Wanderer 1933 influenced his works).

Lewis’s first exhibitions were at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1934. From 1935 to 1938, he organized and taught in art schools for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and was a founding member of the Harlem Artist Guild.

During the 1940s, Lewis moved to Manhattan, became a more abstract painter, and had the first nine exhibitions at the Willard Gallery.  Lewis had shows at the Museum of Modern Art in 1951 and the Whitney Museum in 1958. His works during this period are Boccio (1957), Bonfire (1962), Players Four (1966), and the Seachange series (1976).

In 1969, he, Romare Bearden, and Ernest Crichlow founded the Cinque Gallery, an equitable place for minority artists. Lewis was one of the most important African American abstract expressionists who expanded the range of subjects and techniques available to artists of his generation. Norman Lewis died in 1979.

To be an Artist