C. Michael Norton, What a Wallop, 2005 – 2008, Acrylic on linen, Dyptich, 229 x 366 cm, 90 x 144 inches
C. Michael Nortons grossflächige Acrylbilder setzen Spannungen der Textur, der Fläche und der Farbe zueinander in Bezug. Sie sind visualisierter Klang. Orchestrierung von Musik, die der Maler verbildlicht. Verknüpft ist seine Malerei mit Kandinsky, Matisse’s späten Collagen, De Kooning und Pollock. C. Michael Norton hört beim Malen Musik. Oft Miles Davis und Ornette Coleman.
C. Michael Norton’s large-scale acrylic paintings, competing surface tensions confront each other creating a visual orchestration of discordant and harmonic tonalities that the artist likens to seeing sounds. With an historic nod to territory mined by Kandinsky, Matisse’s late cut outs thru De Kooning & Pollock, Norton listens to a range of music including jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman & Miles Davis as he forms space that plays with depth, perspective and frontality that belongs to the 21st century. The chromatic intensity of his palate – the densely pigmented colors applied in a layering of smeared and collided passages – is seductive yet cacophonous. Norton’s countless thick layers of paint are juxtaposed against sections of raw linen which become open passages or holes in a membrane. The artist talks about his work as “building” a painting. Using mud-knives instead of paint brushes, he constructs organic volumes and architectonic planes, generating vibrant skins which stretch across the canvas to embrace a complex web of ideas.
catalogue, text von stephen westfall (deutsch) text by stephen westfall (english)
solo shows
2013
thomas punzmann fine arts – Frankfurt
2012
thomas punzmann fine arts – Frankfurt
2011
FiveMyles, Brooklyn, NY
Woodstock Artist Association & Museum
Woodstock, NY
2007
Sudden Spring Suite, Tama, New York City
2004
WRANGLED TEBS, 2 person show
Maxwell Fine Arts, Peekskill, NY,
curated by Koan Baysa, in conjunction
with the “Peekskill Project”
2003
100 Broadway Exhibition Program, New York City, curated by Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts
2001
Barbara Greene Fine Art, New York City
Galerie Terre d’Art, St. Paul de Vence
1992
Albissola/America/Arte
Museo Civico d’Arte Contemporanea, Albissola
Galerie Capazza, Paris/Nancay, Nancy
1990
Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris
1985
Gallery 30, San Mateo, California
1984
Galerie Christine Le Chanjour, Nice
Galerie Jean-Yves Noblet, Paris, Grenoble
1983
Markham Gallery/Museum Services, San Jose
1981
San Jose State University, San Jose
selected group exhibitions
2012
5th Beijing International Biennale, Beijing, China
Filser & Graf, Munich, Germany
Sideshow, Brooklyn, NY
2011
artfair cologne, thomas punzmann fine arts – Frankfurt
Collaborative Concepts at Saunders Farm,
Garrison, NY
Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Exit Art, New York, NY
2009
Collaborative Concepts at Saunders Farm,
Garrison, NY
2008
Sunshine International Museum
Annual Art Exhibition, Beijing, China
curated by Peter Wayne Lewis
Collaborative Concepts at Saunders Farm
Garrison, NY
Union Square West Group Exhibition
Tama Gallery, New York, NY
Inside/Outside, Maxwell Fine Art, New York City
2007
Sudden Spring Suite, Tama, New York City
2004
Precipitations London Biennale
New York Pollinations, The Lab Gallery,
The Roger Smith Hotel, New York City
curated by Koan Jeff Baysa
2001-02
Barbara Greene Fine Art, New York City
2000-02
Galerie Terre d’Art, St. Paul de Vence
1990-98
Galerie Capazza, Paris/Nancy
1989-91
Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris
Salon International D’Arts Plastiques de Valognes, Galerie Bercovy-Fugier, Paris
1986
Zeus-Trabia Gallery, New York City
1985
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco
Arco, Madrid
1984
Gallery 30, San Mateo