{
"data": {
"id": 294175,
"accession_number": "2017.1",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Alabama, 1960. Norman Lewis (American, 1909\u20131979). Oil on canvas; overall: 122.6 x 184.5 cm (48 1/4 x 72 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2017.1. \u00a9 Estate of Norman W. Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY",
"current_location": "227 Abstract Expressionism",
"title": "Alabama",
"creation_date": "1960",
"creation_date_earliest": 1960,
"creation_date_latest": 1960,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Black American Artists"
],
"culture": [
"United States"
],
"technique": "Oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "American Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "American - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Overall: 122.6 x 184.5 cm (48 1/4 x 72 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 1.226,
"height_inch": 48,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 1.845,
"width_inch": 72,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Estate of Norman W. Lewis; Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 306886,
"title": "Recent Acquisitions",
"description": "Recent Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 17-June 7, 2018).",
"opening_date": "2018-03-17T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 443702,
"title": "Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus",
"description": "Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-June 26, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-02-20T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Recent Acquisitions 2014-2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 17, 2018-June 6, 2018).",
"opening_date": "2018-03-17T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Norman Lewis was the son of parents who had emigrated to the U.S. from Bermuda.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "During the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis sought to align his interest in abstraction with current events. With its black and white palette, Alabama offers a symbolic duality for a time entrenched in racial conflict. Furthermore, the painting's composition has prompted viewers to draw additional associations from its abstract shapes, such as a nighttime Ku Klux Klan gathering.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60482854"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Litt, Steven. \"'Alabama:' A Top Acquisition.\" The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), March 26, 2017.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. A6; Reproduced: p. A6",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "O'Grady, Megan, \"Once Overlooked, Black Abstract Painters Are Finally Given Their Due,\" New York Times Style Magazine, February 14, 2021.
",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Litt, Steven. \"Cleveland Museum of Art Survey's America's Racial History Through Works by Modern, Contemporary Black Artists,\" Plain Dealer, February 27, 2022.",
"page_number": "p. D-2.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Bittencourt, Renata, \"Art for Times of Insurrection,\" in Adriano Pederosa and Rodrigo Moura, eds., Melvin Edwards: Lynch Fragments, exh. cat. (Museu de arte de S\u00e3o Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Brazil, 2018).",
"page_number": "Mentioned p. 16-17; reproduced p. 17.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Amaki, Amalia K. \"The African American Aspect of American Art,\" in Stephen M. Sessler, ed., American Art: Collecting and Connoisseurship (London: Merrell, 2020).",
"page_number": "Mention, P. 115.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Disman, Barry. Norman Lewis: A Retrospective: Catalogue. New York: City University of New York, 1976.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 11",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Conwill, Kinshasha, and David Craven. Norman Lewis: Black Paintings 1946-1977. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 13, 23, 27, 32, 39; Reproduced: fig. 18",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "McNally, Owen. \"Black Tones, Bright Star.\" Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), March 28, 1999.",
"page_number": "Mentioned",
"url": "https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1999-03-28-9903280453-story.html"
},
{
"citation": "Damsker, Matt. \"Transcending Race, Refining Abstraction.\" Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), April 4, 1999.",
"page_number": "Mentioned",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Zimmer, William. \"The Color Black: On the Painter's Canvas and the World.\" The New York Times (New York, NY), May 30, 1999.",
"page_number": "Mentioned",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gibson, Ann Eden. \"Diaspora and Ritual: Norman Lewis's Civil Rights Paintings.\" Third Text 45 (June 2008).",
"page_number": "Mentioned: 31, 39, 42",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Wood, Sara. \"\"Pure Eye Music\": Norman Lewis, Abstract Expressionism, and Bebop. In The Hearing Eye: Jazz & Blues Influences in African American Visual Art, edited by Graham Lock and David Murray. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 101",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Jones, Kellie. EyeMinded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art. Duke University Press, 2011.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Tan, Mindy. \"Canvas Politics: Norman Lewis and the Art of Abstract Resistance.\" PhD diss., Purdue University, 2015.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 30; Reproduced: p. 139",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Welch, John. \"Norman Lewis, Artist, Visionary, Humanist.\" IRAAA, 2015.",
"page_number": "Mentioned; Reproduced",
"url": "http://iraaa.museum.hamptonu.edu/page/Norman-Lewis,-Artist,-Visionary,-Humanist"
},
{
"citation": "Welch, John. \"Discovering the Artistic Genius of Norman Lewis.\" The Root, December 20, 2015.",
"page_number": "Reproduced",
"url": "https://www.theroot.com/discovering-the-artistic-genius-of-painter-norman-lewis-1790862122"
},
{
"citation": "Bradford, Mark. \"Social Abstraction.' The International Review of African American Art, vol. 26 no. 1: 41-42.",
"page_number": "Reproduced; p. 42",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Blood, Anne. \"The Indefatigable Curiosity of Norman Lewis.\" Hyperallergic, March 28, 2016.",
"page_number": "Mentioned; Reproduced",
"url": "https://hyperallergic.com/286221/the-indefatigable-curiosity-of-norman-lewis/"
},
{
"citation": "Vali, Murtaza.\"Norman Lewis: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.\" Artforum 54 (April 2016).",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 240",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Qui, Serena. \"Norman Lewis: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.\" Art in America 104 (June/July 2016).",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 149; Reproduced: p. 149",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Eisenman, Stephen. \"Painting Black and Blue: A Review of Norman Lewis at the Chicago Cultural Center.\" Newcity Art (Chicago, IL), December 16, 2016.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: Reproduced",
"url": "https://art.newcity.com/2016/12/16/painting-black-and-blue/"
},
{
"citation": "Litt, Steven. \"Civil Rights Era Masterpiece by Norman Lewis Leads Acquisitions at Cleveland Museum of Art.\" Cleveland.com (Cleveland, OH), March 21, 2017.",
"page_number": "Mentioned",
"url": "https://www.cleveland.com/arts/2017/03/norman_lewis_masterpiece_evoki.html"
},
{
"citation": "Schreiber, Kelley Notaro. \"Cleveland Museum of Art Announces New Acquisitions.\" The Cleveland Museum of Art, March 21, 2017,",
"page_number": "Mentioned; Reproduced",
"url": "https://www.clevelandart.org/about/press/media-kit/cleveland-museum-art-announces-new-acquisitions-4"
},
{
"citation": "Litt, Steven. \"Museum Director Wants More.\" Sunday Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), August 6, 2017.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. A14",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Grant, Daniel. \"Top Museum Acquisitions: 2017 In Review.\" Antiques & Fine Art Magazine, Spring 2018.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 101",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cole, Mark. \u201cAcquisition Highlights: American Art.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 2 (March/April 2018): 18.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 18",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2018-02/page/n9/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Griswold, William M. \u201cRecent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.\u201d Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93-104.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 99, no. 12; mentioned: P. 93",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Franke, Anselm. Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War.
Berlin : Haus der Kulturen der Welt ; Berlin : Sternberg Press 2021.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 434",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2017.1",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": "Frank H. and Nancy L. Porter Gallery",
"athena_id": 294175,
"creators": [
{
"id": 7921,
"description": "Norman Lewis (American, 1909\u20131979)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1909",
"death_year": "1979",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2017-02-27T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1960,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1960",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-09-19 12:14:15.455000"
}
}