Norman Zammitt

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.

Norman Charles Zammitt was born on February 3, 1931, in Toronto, Canada.

His mother was Mohawk of the Iroquois Nation and his father, Italian from Palermo, Sicily.

When he was 7 years old, the family moved to the Caughnawaga Reservation 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.

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."

He received his MFA in 1961.

— Artforum Vol. No. 6, Henry Hopkins, November 1962

Exhibits

“Collage-American Artists (Directions in Collage)" Pasadena Art Museum, 1962

“Pasadena Third Biennial Print Show" Pasadena Art Museum, 1962.

References

— Arts Magazine, Gerald Nordland, October 1962

Exhibits

Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, 1962

“Exceptionally Gifted: Recent Donations to the Norton Simon Museum”, NSM, Pasadena, Ca. May 2009.

The Dream Colony, Water Hopps, 2017

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."