Norman Zammitt

Solo exhibits Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago Il., July 19 – September 6, 2014 Carter Citizen Gallery, Culver City, California, October -November 2012 Michael Lord Gallery, Palm Springs, California, 2011 Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, 1988 Gallery, Loma Linda University, Riverside, Los Angeles, California, 1988 Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1984 Brandstater Gallery Of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978 Corcoran Los Angeles County Museum Of Art, California, 1977 Los Angeles County Museum Of Art, California, 1977 Group exhibits San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2017 “Light and Space" Seattle Art Museum, 2016 “Made in the USA" Palm Springs Art Museum, 2013 "Abstraction: 1960s to Today" Heather James Gallery, Palm Desert, California. 2013 "Pure Light and Space" painting and sculpture from the 1970s, Newspace Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2011 "So Cal: Southern California Painting: 1970s Painting Per Se", David Richard Contemporary Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2011 "Crosscurrents in Los Angeles, California Paintings and Sculpture 1950–1970" J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California (Pacific Standard Time venue October 2, 2011 – April 2012) “So Cal: Southern California Art of the 1960s and 70s from LACMA’s collection” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2007 “Translucence, Southern California Art from the 1960s & 70s” Norton Simon Museum, 2006 “Otis: Nine Decades of Los Angeles Art”, Los Angeles, 2006 Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California, 1998 Contemporary Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988–89 "Art in Los Angeles, 1988: Profound Visions", Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1987 "The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting, 1890–1985", LACMA Robert O Anderson building, inaugural exhibit, 1986 and Gemeentemuseum, the Hague Holland, 1987 "A California Collection", Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, 1986 "Contrasts", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986 "New Acquisitions", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985 "Focus on California", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, 1984 "Decade: Los Angeles Painting in the Seventies", Art Center, Pasadena, California 1981 “Second Emerging Expression Biennial: The Artist and the Computer”, Bronx Museum of the Arts, N.Y., 1981 "California Artists", Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1979 Articles/media features “A Painting for my Los Angeles”, Unframed LACMA blog, Scott Tenant, January 31, 2013 Amerika (America Illustrated) United States Information Agency, publication to Moscow, November 1984, "Around the World in Total Silence", Joseph Allen, p. 13, ill. Longson, Tony "Computer Art", Arts and Architecture, Vol.3 #1, Sum.1984, p. 52, ill. Gilbert, Anne, "Under the Rainbow: Artists and their Spaces", New West, February 27, 1978, ill. Books Creating the Future; Art and Los Angeles, California in the 1970s" Michael Fallon, Counterpoint, Berkeley, California 2014 p. 244 50 West Coast Artists, Henry Hopkins, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1981 Art and the Future: A History/Prophecy of the Collaboration Between Scientific Technology and Art, Douglas Davis, Praeger, New York & Washington,DC, 1973 Exhibitions “Portraits and Palettes”, photographs by Ramos and Jacobs, Oakland Museum, July 1979 and LACMA, July 1980 “American Palettes, 1977–1979, Photographs by Leta Ramos, San Francisco Museum, July 1979 Catalogues The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986, pp. 419, 353, ill. Emerging Expression Biennial, (cover, Bronx Museum of the Arts, ill.), September 1987 Reviews (select) Press Enterprise, The Arts, Hazel Simon, January 18, 1987 Los Angeles Times, "A Spiritual Abstract Exhibition", William.Wilson, November 23, 1986 Washington Post, Paul Richard, February 20, 1978

Exhibits “Exceptionally Gifted: Recent Donations to the Norton Simon Museum”, NSM, Pasadena, Ca. May 2009. “Collage-American Artists (Directions in Collage)" Pasadena Art Museum, 1962 “Pasadena Third Biennial Print Show" Pasadena Art Museum, 1962. References The Dream Colony, Water Hopps, 2017

Exhibits “All in the Family", George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles 2006 “Heroes and Heroines; Working Artists Over 70", Santa Ana, February 2004

“Paradise is showing up in the strangest places these days. In the shadows of the fourth street bridge within the warehouse sector of Boyle Heights, an avant garde artist has created a model for what he hopes one day will be an environment of tranquility, inspiration and contemplation. Artist Norman Zammitt recently finished his prototype vision of "Elysium", the mythical Greek resting place of virtuous people after death." — Michael Krikorian, Los Angeles Times, Metro, December 3, 1996.

"…fascinating op-art effect." — Time, April 1969 "Zammitt juggles perspectives and sends rays of illuminated color-light into darting motion." — Arts Magazine, M.B. December 1968

Reviews (select) Los Angeles Times, "Art Walk", April 4, 1969 Arts, magazine, mid-monthly supplement, December 1968 Art News, December 1968 New York Times, November 2, 1968 Los Angeles Times, William Wilson, March 22, 1968 Los Angeles Times, January 21, 28, 1968 Women's Wear Daily, January 6, 1967 World Journal Tribune, January 6, 1967 New York Times, John Canaday, January 6, 1967 Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1966 (Landau-Alan Gallery – solo) Artforum, "L.A Art News", March 1966, p. 20 Artforum, March 1966, "Norman Zammitt", Peter Plagens, March,1966, pp. 14–15, ill Purchase Award “50th Anniversary Sculpture Show" Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles Ca. 1968

Exhibits “Proof, The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California", 2012 “From Paris to Pasadena: An Overview of Color Lithography, 1890–1975,” 2000 “Art From Stone: Prints from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, 1960–1970,” Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California 1999 “Tamarind Collection", Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1999 Landau Alan, New York, 1968 “Pasadena Third Biennial Print Show", Pasadena Art Museum, 1962 Reviews Los Angeles Times Fri. May 22, 1968 William Wilson Arts Magazine Mid Monthly Supplement Dec. 1968 Art News, December 1968 Books Proof, The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California; 2012 Printmaking Today, Heller, Jules, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1972 Catalogues Tamarind, a Renaissance of Lithography, 1967, p. 92, ill. Los Angeles Prints 1883–1980, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981, p. 76, ill.

Solo exhibits Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles 1969 Landau-Alan Gallery, New York 1968 Museum of Art, Santa Barbara California 1968 Beverly Hills Writers Building, 1972 Group exhibits “Abstraction: 1960s to Today” Heather James Gallery, Palm Desert, California. November 2013 “Translucence”, Southern California Art from the 1960s & 1970s", 2006 "A Plastic Presence", San Francisco Museum of Art, 1970 “Permutations, Light and Color” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois 1970 “Studio Marconi”, Milan, Italy 1970 “American Report – The 1960s”, Denver Art Museum, Colorado 1969 “20th Anniversary Exhibit” Felix Landau Gallery 1968 “Made of Plastic” Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan 1968 “Plastics as Plastics” Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York 1968 “West Coast Now”, Portland Art Museum, Oregon 1968 "Plastics West Coast", Hansen Gallery, San Francisco, 1967 "American Sculpture of the Sixties", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California 1967 "American Sculpture of the Sixties", Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1967 "Show of New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1967 "Young West Coast Artists” Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965 "The 1960s: Painting and Sculpture from the Museum Collection" Museum of Modern Art, New York 1967 Articles Los Angeles, California Times West, June 4, 1967, "Sculpture of the Sixties", ill. Davis, Douglas, "Art and Technology-The New Combine", Art in America, Jan./Feb.,1968, ill. Davis, Douglas "From New Materials, a Dynamic Sculpture", National Observer, Feb 20, 1967, ill. Los Angeles, California Times Home, Harry Lewis home/collection, January 1970. Books Art in Boxes, Van Nostrand-Reinhold Plastics as Sculpture, Thelma Newman Movements in Art since 1945, Edward Lucie-Smith, The World of Art Library, History of Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1969 Art Today, Faulkner Zeigfield, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1969 Sculpture in Plastics, Nicolas Roukes, Watson Guptill, New York, 1968 Catalogues American Sculpture of the Sixties,1967, pp. 225, 232, 233, L. A. County Museum of Art, ill Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, 1967, University of Illinois, Urbana, 13th Exhibition, p. 143, ill.

"Several years have gone by and Norman Zammitt has turned from highly erotic paintings to the creation of plastic boxes in which he intricately creates the most amazing and subtle color spectacles imaginable." Los Angeles Times, Henry J Seldis, January 10, 1966.

"What is surprising about these is not their "newness" but their embellishment upon the best traditions of plasticism in 20th century painting – the lessons of Picasso, Mondrian, Pollock and Hofman, among others. ... he synthesizes a category independent of painting (which may happen to be three dimensional) and sculpture (which may happen to be colored). A sensuous showing." Artforum, Peter Plagens, March 1966.

"...small collages which combined with an active calligraphy with placement of bright colored chips against a mahogany lacquer ground." — Artforum Vol. No. 6, Henry Hopkins, November 1962

"The anatomical fragments change their character at the point of contacting the invisible planes of the geometric box walls. At such point a hip shape will turn a different color…There is a sensation-seeking aspect to this work which may be related to the researches of so called neo-Dada. There is also a serious commentary in relation to isolation, interior emptiness." — Arts Magazine, Gerald Nordland, October 1962

Exhibits Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, 1962 Landau-Alan Gallery, New York, 1963 Contemporaries Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1964 Cardwell Jimmerson Gallery, Culver City, California, 2011 Reviews Los Angeles, California Times, September 23, 1962, Henry Seldis Beverly Hills Times, September 21, 1962, Arthur Secunda Arts Magazine October 1962 Art International, November 1962 Arts Magazine February 1963 Articles Santa Fe News, February 5, 1964 Santa Fe News, Art News, February 6, 1964 Albuquerque Tribune, "The Art Controversy" February 12, 1964 Albuquerque Tribune, "Contemporary Gallery Has Zammitt, Hamill Art", My 14, 1964

In 1960, his last year at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, Zammitt was invited by Felix Landau to join his gallery on the prestigious La Cienega gallery row. Landau also advanced him funds for his first studio in Pasadena. These small abstract works were done in oil, pencil, crayon, liquitex, collage and etching, and were enthusiastically received by collectors, launching his professional career.

On his discharge in 1956, Zammitt returned to finish at Pasadena City College and continued pursuing commercial art at Art Center School of Design where he had received a scholarship. However, a closer look at that art changed his mind and he applied to the Otis Art Institute (now called Otis College of Art and Design) to study fine art and received a four-year scholarship. He spent two years on curriculum and two years on his thesis. "He was the best student. He could do anything." —John Baldessari Otis gave him a private studio where he was free to paint and create his work, unsupervised. He received his MFA in 1961.

The Korean war interrupted his education with his enlistment into the Air Force in 1952 and assigned as a photographer. In his one-year tour of duty in Korea, he did aerial reconnaissance photography. In his off duty hours he continued painting including a mural at an orphanage there, of Christ with Korean children. On his return to the U.S. to finish his service, on a base in Colorado, his work was as a draftsman. In 1955, he met and married his wife, Marilyn Jean and had a daughter and a son, Dawn Zammitt Crandall and Eric Zammitt, both artists today.

Norman Charles Zammitt (February 3, 1931 – November 16, 2007) was an American artist in Southern California who was at the leading edge of the Light and Space Movement, pioneering with his transparent sculptures in the early 1960s, followed in the 1970s by his large scale luminous color paintings.

Norman Charles Zammitt was born on February 3, 1931, in Toronto, Canada. His mother was Mohawk of the Iroquois Nation and his father, Italian from Palermo, Sicily. When he was 7 years old, the family moved to the Caughnawaga Reservation across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal for four years then to Montreal, then to Buffalo New York, and on to settle in Southern California at age 14 in the San Gabriel Valley.