Norris Embry

Norris Embry is an American artist born on January 14th 1921 with Louisville, Kentucky.

It grew in the town of East Orange in the New Jersey, with the accesses of the town of New York, then in the town of Evanston in the area of Chicago or it followed its schooling in the public schools until the end of the college. It was registered later with the John Saint' S College in Annapolis in Maryland, then with Art Institute of Chicago. At the end of the years 1940, it integrated the Academy of Beautiful arts of Florence; its professor, the painter Expressionniste Oskar Kokoschka, exerted a great influence on the work of Embry.

During its adolescence in the area of Chicago, Embry showed a great interest for the literature of avant-garde, like the modern music and the modern art. In 1947 it decides to dedicate its life to painting, and during the fifteen years which followed until the beginning of the year 1960, it embarked in a career of wandering artist which led it San Francisco to New York to Europe of post-war period, then in Turkey and North Africa.

Among the European countries where Embry resided punctually, one notes France, Italy, Germany, Spain, England and Sweden. Paris was its first European destination at the time of its initial voyage in 1947; it often went back there during the 15 following years. But it is especially the Mediterranean culture which allured its heart and collected its artistic imagination, in particular the Greece where it frequently remained.

Throughout its life, Embry suffered from serious problems involved in the mental disease. In the middle of the years 1960, after having integrated Shepphard Pratt Institute into Baltimore in the Maryland, it made this city its main home. He lived and paints with Baltimore until the last weeks of his life.

Following several brain hemorrhages, Embry died out on February 17th 1981. It was buried at the Sucker Hill Cemetery with Louisville.

Work

The work of Norris Embry is out of the conventional and commercial appreciations of art, and this in spite of the fact that he was regarded by certain critics as the first Expressionniste German American.

Among the painters whom he recognized like having had a great influence on him (other that its professor Kokoschka), one can quote: Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Jackson Pollock, Emil Nolde, max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Egon Schiele, Georges Rouault and Otto Wols. Another influence more surprising, that of the writer and illustrator James Thurber, show through in the work of Embry through its caricatured and absurd characters who appear in a recurring way in his monotypes. In addition, the graffiti which recover most of its work constitute autobiographical details of its life.

From the years 1950 and until its death, the work of Norris Embry at summer frequently exposed to New York and in other cities of the United States and of Europe.

Public collections

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Baltimore Museum off Art, Baltimore, MD
The Newark Museum, Newark, NY
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
The University off Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, KY
Neuberger Museum off Art, Purchase, NY
The Arkansas Center Arts, Little Rock, AR

External bonds

The Norris Embry Estate
The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, cd.
The Baltimore Museum off Art
University off Kentucky Art Museum

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