are given parenthetical descriptive titles as well. The swirling, circular shapes in Untitled (Since War Began) (1949) [p.51], may be considered a precedent for the Seachange drawings of two decades later. And The Wolf and Lamb Shall Feed Together (1949) [p.53], a biblical quotation from the Book of Isaiah in which a plea for peaceful coexistence mirrors a plea that one may assume was always on Lewis’ mind. There is a subtle difference between the ink colors used for these drawings, the former reading as brown, the latter as black. Both are quiet works that bear a formal connection to Lewis’ canvas titled Harlem Gates, c.1950, by which year Lewis’ commitment to abstraction as a strong element in his art was firm.
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Calligraphic drawings such as these often employ a relatively thin line that may be dragged in various directions by some kind of tool, not yet known, though a bamboo or other penpoint, a match, or a popsicle stick seems possible, as does a thin paintbrush or a finger wrapped in a rag. The tool varies from drawing to drawing as does the use of more than a single line. The diversity among these drawings may be seen by comparing Untitled (1950) [p.65], Winter Branches #3 (1953) [p.71], and Untitled (c. 1953) [p.73]. Ann Eden Gibson, writing for The Studio Museum of Harlem’s 1977 exhibition Norman Lewis: Black Paintings, 1946-1977 and discussing a related methodology in painting, references a “stitched” line in Lewis’ art. She connects this line to his experiences with sewing: when he worked for a presser in the early 1930s, as well as his later interest in needlepoint. To this list we may also add his several unique sewn puppets. While Lewis’ approaches seem to be very different from each other, they remain connected in key ways. Exemplary in this respect are Too Much Aspiration (c.1953) [Fig.1] (closely related to a 1953 canvas of the same title), Give Me Wings to Fly No! (1954) [p.77] and Hide and Seek (1954) [p.83]. Too Much Aspiration is densely worked in gouache, ink, graphite, and metallic paint and suggests figural inspiration. By contrast, Give Me Wings to Fly No!, as noted earlier, is
among the more minimal of Lewis’ works on paper. Finally, Hide and Seek, an early work using oil on paper, introduces still another new methodology and medium that reinforce the importance of the material-form relationship for the artist. The title Hide and Seek mimics the name of the children’s game, but more importantly, it reflects Lewis’ aesthetic concerns. Lewis used only a few colors—orange, blue, and black—which he combined with linear markings juxtaposed with softly edged forms that blend into the whitish field of the sheet. Together, these elements suggest movement in space that imply areas in front of and behind each other; areas that are hiding so as to be sought. This thinking is based on a certain intentionality evident in works to which Lewis assigned titles other than Untitled or simply a number or a date. The patches of color that grow from the linear structures in Hide and Seek bear a relationship to the pulled ink line discussed above. Lewis’ interest in movement in space appears in two other works: Elemental Regions and Commuters. Elemental Regions (1954) [p.81] consists of three totemic thrusts rendered in a similar palette to that of Hide and Seek. While Elemental Regions shares with Hide and Seek a strong vertical orientation, interestingly, its totemic thrusts also echo the figures in the horizontally oriented Commuters (1954) [p.85]. In that work, vertical divisions throughout with tonal areas like those in Hide and Seek create space. The individual figures’ gestures (and, one imagines, their faces) are countered by the parade-like composition suggesting the boredom of daily commuter life. Some figures are carrying briefcases.
Substrate Just as Lewis employed a diverse range of media and techniques, he also worked with a wide variety of supports, determined in some