Dark Metropolis: Irving Norman’s Social Surrealism

Unmasking the realities of human nature and the contemporary society in which we live, Irving Norman aimed only ”to tell the truth of our time.” Norman’s massive canvases abound with teeming figures, drone-like and mechanical in their repetition, yet stubbornly and hauntingly human. The combination of jewel-tone colors, transcendent messages, and technical virtuosity make his work unique in the history of American art. Dark Metropolis , a book of compelling vision, is produced in conjunction with the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento to accompany an ambitious retrospective of the art of this important painter.