Soul of a Nation by Mark Godfrey5/26/2023 ![]() Norman Lewis, “Processional” (aka Procession),(1965) oil on canvas, 38 3/8 x 57 5/8 in. The painting is titled “America the Beautiful.” I knew in that moment that if the story alluded to in the image played out, that cross would soon be on fire. ![]() ![]() Then, in another painting by Lewis, this one from 1960, the figures metastasize throughout the background, shrouded in white as if enrobed by it - some of them look like triangles with heads and two feet. ![]() The one that faces the viewer entering through the main doors, “Processional” (1965), contains a ground that is black, and an abstract array of interwoven, almost-cubist off-white figures wend across the canvas like an undulant line of figures seen through a fun-house telescope. How meaningful this contrast can be is illustrated by two paintings by Norman Lewis. Except for Richard Mayhew’s “Pastoral” painting, which is itself a muted arrangement of heathery tones, this introductory room is monochrome, black made stentorian situated against shades of white, and white made vivid against ebony. ![]() In the first gallery of the Soul of a Nation exhibition at Brooklyn Museum one is confronted with a Manichean visual scheme. Norman Lewis, “America the Beautiful” (1960) oil on canvas, 50 x 64 inches (photo by the author for Hyperallergic) ![]()
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