Norman Lewis

Give me wings to fly

There are many exhibitions I would like to share with you by starting the sentence with “please go and see this…”

But I want to start with an artist, Norman Lewis, and perhaps tell you, “Please go and you will see that you can fly.”

The show is called Give Me Wings to Fly at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.

Norman Lewis was a painter and an art teacher, and the African-American of Bermudian descent lived and created during the time of Abstract Expressionism. Imagine what it meant to be living in the United States in the time of Jackson Pollock. Today, I looked at Lewis’s paintings presented in the gallery, and I saw someone who had wings to fly. We can’t forget the discrimination he faced, or how his art was neglected based on his race. What he created is Sublime, the pure expression of freedom. Think about it, why do we ask for this; why do we want to have wings to fly? To be free?

To be free from social institutions, from the injustice we face in life, from the pain, the forbidden love. Give me the wings to fly. This is the magic of Art. However, Lewis is not only a true genius, but he is also an artist who constantly faced resistance from society, which was based on his race, just because he wanted to create.

That is the courage of one man being able to face the odds against him, to stand against the expectation of silence—taking a step, having enough courage and generosity to give us the wings to fly against the odds, against the pain we face in 2023.

Please, go and see this magnificent exhibition for someone who was able to transform pain into beauty.