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Notorious

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Notorious

1990

Joseph Norman

American, born 1957

Direct confrontation with the unfaltering gaze of black men is the signature of one of Joseph Norman's graphic series. He arranges faces up close to the surface to allow viewers a long hard look. Some are of familiar cultural heroes, like James Baldwin or Miles Davis. Some are not-as in the series entitled Notorious, with faces drawn from mugshots of young gang leaders in Chicago. The icy hard spirit of a young criminal also bears the marks of the struggle with the lithographic process, as slashes cut across the face and neck. Mr. Norman said he wanted viewers to recognize that "You do in a sense have pity on those boys, because you are looking directly into their eyes, and you see emptiness at times. You see that these are children."
Lithograph
20 x 21" (sheet)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Chazan
99.152
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Africa in America", December 18, 2004 - January 1, 2006

Seattle, Wash., Seattle Art Museum, Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography, April 30, 2016-January 2, 2017

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM