Norman Zammitt: Gradations, currently on view at Palm Springs Art Museum, highlights the artist’s exploration of color and pattern through his large and small paintings, as well as his sculptural work.

From the museum-

This exhibition highlights Norman Zammitt’s extensive experiments with color and patterns through sculptures, prints, and paintings created between 1964 and 1991. Perceiving a divide between existing color theories and his own direct observation, Zammitt sought new ways of methodically organizing colors in his works across media. By the mid-1970s, he developed a complex mathematical system for mixing pigments in subtly varied shades. Arranging horizontal sections of solid colors in his signature band paintings, the artist produced a broad range of radiant color spectra.

Gradations is the first museum exhibition of Zammitt’s works since 1988. While he earned acclaim and exhibited widely during his lifetime, Zammitt’s achievements have not been as thoroughly examined as those of his peers in the Light and Space movement. This exhibition explores Zammitt’s unique position between West Coast Hard-Edge painting and California Light and Space art and provides insights into his underrecognized artistic accomplishments.

Born in 1931 to Mohawk and Sicilian parents in Toronto, Zammitt spent time on the Kahnawake reservation outside of Montreal before moving to Southern California at age fourteen. Until his death in 2007, Zammitt lived and worked in Los Angeles for the majority of his artistic career.

Zammitt also created paintings using jagged shapes for his “fractal” or “chaos” paintings, two of which are below.

From the museum-

Zammitt produced a series of large paintings based on his consideration of chaos theory. In these works, which he referred to as his “fractal” or “chaos” paintings, outlined shapes appear to fracture or break up the visual space of the canvas while the colors form a larger gradation. He transferred his systematic studies of color progressions into loosely ordered arrangements that contrast organization and irregularity. Zammitt drew inspiration from the mathematical concept that patterns emerge when seemingly random states of disorder and chaos are analyzed within a larger context.

The sculptural works in the exhibition continue his exploration of color and pattern, but using plastic.

From the museum-

Zammitt created new forms of sculpture and printmaking through his explorations of geometric shapes and patterns. Across both media, the artist developed methods of layering patterns to create mesmerizing visual effects. Through his sculptural works, he contributed to the emergence of plastic as an accepted artistic material. Zammitt arranged painted plexiglass sheets so as to juxtapose volume and transparent space in his boxes and rectangular sculptures. In his pole sculptures, he further explored sequences of color and transformed plastic by fusing together layers of colored acrylic. Zammitt also experimented with color and patterns in his lithograph prints, which overlay slightly offset arrangements of geometric forms.

Below are a selection of Zammitt’s plastic pole sculptures made of the layers of colored acrylic described above.

This exhibition closes 10/6/24.