Ben Norris (artist)
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Ben Norris (1910–2006) was an American modernist painter.
Early life
He was born in
Career
As an active participant in the California Watercolor School, he had the opportunity to work closely with landscape artist Thomas Craig (1906–1969). They became friends and in 1936, at Craig's suggestion, Norris accepted the position of first art teacher at the Kamehameha School for Boys in Honolulu. After a year, he joined the art department at the University of Hawaiʻi as an associate professor, and also took printmaking courses from a colleague. He served as department chairman from 1945 to 1955. In 1955, he was awarded a Fulbright professorship to Japan where he was exposed to Asian techniques, motifs and forms.
Norris painted primarily landscapes, and a few still lifes, in the 1930s and 1940s. In the early 1950s, the landscapes became more abstract, and most of his work was completely abstract by the late 1950s. In the mid-1960s, he turned to semi-abstract figurative work. His paintings from the 1970s include
Death
After his retirement in 1975, Norris moved to New York, and then, in 1993, to Stapeley in Germantown, a Quaker sponsored continuing care retirement community in Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2006.
References
- Forbes, David W., Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, pages 214-261.
- Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1974, pages 88-95.
- Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), Retrospective 1967-1987, Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, page 62
- Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaiian Landscapes: Watercolors by Ben Norris, Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1993.
- Morse, Morse (ed.), Honolulu Printmakers, Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2003, page 24, ISBN 0-937426-58-X
- Norris, Ben, Margaret Norris Castrey and George R. Ellis, Ben Norris, American Modernist, 1910-2006, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2009.
- Wisnosky, John and Tom Klobe, A Tradition of Excellence, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, 2002, pages 92–95
- Yoshihara, Lisa A., Collective Visions, 1967-1997, [Hawaii] State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1997, page 48.
- http://www.quaker.org/fqa/types/t06-norris.html
Footnotes
- University of Hawaii Press, 2009, page xii
- ^ Norris, Ben, Margaret Norris Castrey and George R. Ellis, Ben Norris, American Modernist, 1910-2006, University of Hawaii Press, 2009, p. xv
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