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.
Early life and education Norman Charles Zammitt was born on February 3, 1931, in Toronto, Canada. His mother was Mohawk of Kahnawà:ke and his father, Italian from Palermo, Sicily. When he was 7 years old, the family moved to the Kahnawà:ke Reserve 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.
Drawing was a consistent pursuit throughout Zammitt's childhood, ignited further, at age 12, by his first sight of an oil painting by a Dutch artist in a gallery window. He was also taken by animation, Disney films, drawing the characters and making up his own. His skill at cartooning carried on through high school, at both El Monte and Rosemead where he developed comic strip characters for the schools’ newspapers. His talent in both classic and cartoon art won him national, regional and scholastic awards during his high school years. He moved on to Pasadena City College where his talent again was recognized and he was advised to pursue the commercial art field.
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.
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.
Artwork Abstract landscapes (1957–1961)
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.
"...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 1962Artforum Vol. No. 6, Henry Hopkins, November 1962
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
Boxed figured black paintings (1962–1963)
Responding to the assemblage art movement and school of the found or common object, and an interest in the work of Magritte and Bacon, Zammitt embarked on a series of paintings that dealt with the human body and its parts, arms, legs, feet etc. as common objects. Encased in boxes, set against a black or clear background, the human figure was defined as a whole, but composed of fragments. Shown at the gallery, these paintings evoked a civil complaint for censorship which was denied in a judicial ruling. Censorship occurred at the University of New Mexico where he taught and was to exhibit. He then exhibited at a private gallery in Santa Fe.
"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 1962Arts 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
Plastic sculptures (1964–1972)
While continuing the black figurative paintings with intent to shock with more controversial images, Zammitt noticed the mixing of colors on his glass palette. Feeling the influence of New Mexico's light, color, and space, he became more interested in what was happening on his palette than on the canvases. He began painting on sheets of glass, then acrylic plastic, leading to the start of the transparent sculptures—the first of that genre shown in Los Angeles, California and New York.American Sculpture of the Sixties – 1967, by Maurice Tuchman
Painted constructions (1964–1966) This series includes 19 plastic boxes encasing clear spaced acrylic plastic sheets upon which Zammitt painted in opaque and transparent pigments, abstract images morphing through the layers, transitioning from one image to another in suspension, third dimension.
"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," wrote Henry J. Seldis in the Los Angeles Times.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.
Solid state constructions (1967–1969)
Eventually Zammitt laminated thicker sheets to create a solid piece, overlapping patterned images of transparent pigment embedding the image in a common space, color three-dimensionally mixing in space. He pioneered methods of cutting, polishing and bubble free lamination innovating a solution to the then crude process of plastic cutting, not only enabling him to make these sculptures but "educated" some in the plastics industry. He shared his findings with his fellow plastics artists. In this series, he produced 26 works.
"…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
Poles (1970–1972)
These 30 sculptures, 8 to 10-foot long, 1¼-inch square, round, octagonal, hexagonal or spindled, were constructed with solid color acrylics in an order of color frequencies, then laminated and polished. The final pole combined the transparent, translucent and opaque in a combination varying from matte to high gloss.
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
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.
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
Lithography (1967)
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.
Paintings Band paintings (1974–1988)
The sculptures, suspending color in space, led Zammitt back to painting on canvas entirely in the abstract in pursuit of understanding and expressing color itself. He produced 60 band paintings. "For most of my life I had thought a lot about the nature of color, specifically, its sequential nature. I was drawn to it, not by a decorative or superficial attraction to design and its aesthetic application but by something deep within the colors themselves, akin to life itself, spirituality."Norman Zammitt, personal writings
Though the sky was his "model" it was not his intention to create landscapes or sunsets, nor to imitate nature, but to parallel the abstraction of light in paint, to correlate palette and sky. He found that none of the different theories of color were quite related to nature, so he began putting color into what he felt was their natural sequence. He began by mixing his own basic, primary or "parent" colors and from that eventually mixing colors according to his experience and ideas about how one color can become another color can become another color, etc. until it rounded the whole spectrum.