Featured Artists' Biographies (N)

View larger image and more information for Gerald Nailor's original silkscreen, Quail.

Gerald Nailor (Pinedale, New Mexico, 1917 - Picuris Pueblo, NM, 1952): In general, American native art was largely ignored by the public during the first half of the twentieth century. It is not surprising that a highly skilled Navaho artist and designer such as Gerald Nailor would have examples of his art included in the Museum of the American Indian, Massachusetts, or in the Denver Art Museum, which also houses a large collection of Native art. What is of interest, however, is that such major institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery, Washington, acquired and exhibited Nailor's art during his short lifetime. For an artist raised in inadequate mission schools this was quite an accomplishment.

Besides receiving government commissions, Nailor also began designing silk-screen prints in collaboration with Tewa Enterprises. During this period, Tewa Enterprises, which had been co-founded by Harison Begay (White Cone, Arizona, Born, 1917), was one of a scant handful of publishing houses that existed solely to promote Native Arts.

View larger image and more information for Reuben Nakian's original lithograph, Europa and the Bull.

Reuben Nakian (College Point, New York, 1897 - Stamford Connecticut, 1986): One of America's most distinguished twentieth century sculptors, Reuben Nakian was also a fine lithographic artist. Nakian began his studies at the Robert Henri School, under Homer Boss and A. S. Baylinson, and then completed his education at the Art Students League of New York (1912). At the age of twenty, Nakian was apprenticed to Paul Manship and worked under this famous art deco sculptor for a period of three years. He then traveled extensively in both Italy and France.

Reuben Nakian's first one man exhibition was held in New York in 1933. Since that time his sculpture, drawings and prints were exhibited both nationally and internationally and he won major awards in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Venice and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Today, such major galleries as the Art Institute of Chicago, New York State University, the Museum of Modern art, New York, and the Hirshhorn Museum include his art in their collections. In the Spring of 1999, the prestigious Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, held a major retrospective exhibition of Nakian's sculpture and prints.

View larger image and more information for Shigenu Narikawa's original mezzotint, Spring.

Shigenu Narikawa (Japan, active, 1960 - 1990): Shigenu Narikawa's art is well known in both Japan and the United States. One man exhibitions of his mezzotints have been held in Tokyo, Kyoto, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. He has also created original mezzotints for art publishers in both countries. Most of Narikawa's mezzotints delineate still life compositions. Spring is one of Narikawa's largest and most accomplished works of original art.

Not many masters of modern art have dedicated most of their artistic talents to the hazardous medium of the mezzotint. From the rocking of the plate to the scraping and burnishing to bring light out of the darkness, the mezzotint has rightly been called the most delicate and complex of all art methods. Yet no other art can bring forth such magnificent areas of light and shade as this purely tonal medium. The leading twentieth century artists of the mezzotint are D. E. Galinis, Mario Avati, Yozo Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Hasagawa and Shigenu Narikawa.

View larger image and more information for Reginald H. Neal's original lithograph, Square of Two.

Reginald H. Neal (Leicester, England, 1909 - U.S.A., 1992): During the 1960's the phenomenon known as Op art came to the forefront in both America and Europe. Briefly, Op was a form of abstract art that examined and exploited optical elements to cause a work of visual art to appear to vibrate, pulsate or flicker. Contemporary experiments in perceptual psychology provided a key influence and international attention was instantly focused on Op art in 1965 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York launched a major exhibition on the movement entitled, "The Responsive Eye". Unlike most movements in later twentieth century art, Op had an immediate effect upon popular culture, particularly in the fields of fashion and design. Major exponents of Op art were Victor Vaserely, Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz and Reginald H. Neal.

Reginald Neal moved to America (Decatur, Illinois) at an early age. He received his BA in 1932 from Bradley University and his MA in 1939 from the University of Chicago (Art History). Neal's first one-man exhibition of his paintings and prints took place in Chicago in 1944. He later exhibited his art at the Museum of Modern Art, Pratt-Contemporaries and the Associated American Artists, New York, as well as the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cincinnati Art Museum the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.

View larger image and more information for Lowell Blair Nesbitt's original drypoint engraving, Shoes XII.

Lowell Blair Nesbitt (Baltimore Maryland, 1933 - New York, 1993): A major modern American artist, Lowell Blair Nesbitt is highly regarded for his original etchings, engravings, paintings and sculpture. His artistic education was received from the Tyler School of Fine Arts, Baltimore, Temple University, Philadelphia, and the Royal College of Art, London, England. Since his graduation, Nesbitt has also taught at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the University of Miami, the University of Richmond and at the New York School of Visual Arts.

Since his first one-man show in 1958, Nesbitt has frequently exhibited his art at major venues throughout the world. Institutions that presently possess his paintings and prints in their permanent collections include, the Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery and the Library of Congress, Washington, DC., the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA). Nesbitt's work is also found in public international collections in Aachen, Germany, Wellington, New Zealand, Goteborg, Sweden, and in Brussels, Copenhagen and Tel Aviv.

View more information for Louise Nevelson's original etching and aquatint, Trees and Circle.

Louise Nevelson (Kiev, Russia, 1899 - New York, 1989): Louise Nevelson has been called 'the most distinguished sculptor in America and one of the great sculptors of the world'. Her original etchings occupy a no less exalted position. In both mediums, she created new fields of form and space that made her one of the most innovative and influential voices of post 1945 modern art.

Louise Nevelson worked at the Art Students League under Kenneth Hayes Miller. In 1931, she finished her formal training in painting in Munich under Hans Hofmann. Nevelson returned to New York the following year where she met the famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. She became his primary assistant there and worked with him on his series of New York murals entitled, Portrait of America.

Nevelson's premier gallery showing was at the Secession Gallery in New York and at the Brooklyn Museum. She is regarded as one of the most important contemporary artists in America. The prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art purchased one of her sculptures in 1956 and the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired her Sky Cathedral in 1958.

View more information for Mats Norryd's original lithograph, Encounter.

Mats Norryd (Sweden, 1944 - 1989): A twentieth century Swedish painter, printmaker and illustrator, Mats Norryd studied at the Stockholm Royal Academy. By 1970 his art was included in major exhibitions in Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Norryd also developed an international reputation as an artist of the illustrated book, with contributions such as Ruth Hinshull's, Mikakler till Frukost (Miracles for Breakfast), 1976, and Hubbard's, All About Radiation, 1980. In 1985 Wasa Litho, in Stockholm, published a monograph on the artist's work entitled, Mats Norryd.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Elizabeth Norton.

Elizabeth Norton (Chicago, 1887 - Palo Alto, California, 1985): An important California printmaker, painter and sculptor, Elizabeth Norton studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Students' League of New York and at the National Academy of Design. She moved to California in 1915 and was a founding member of the Palo Alto Art Club (now the Pacific Art League). She was also a full member of the California Society of Etchers, California Print Makers, Prairie Print Makers, the Woodcut Society and the Federation of American Arts.

During her career, Norton exhibited with these institutions as well as at the Golden Gate Exposition, San Francisco (1939), California State Library (1942), the National Academy of Design (1942), and at Stanford University (1950). Her prints are now included in such major collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, Yale University, the Fogg Museum of Art, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Natural History Museum of New York, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

View larger image, more information and other original works of art by Josef Pierre Nuyttens.

Josef Pierre Nuyttens (Antwerp, Belgium, 1885 - Chicago, 1960): A twentieth century painter and etcher, Josef Pierre Nuyttens studied art in his native Belgium at the Antwerp Royal Academy. He then went to Paris to complete his education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Nuyttens began to exhibit his paintings in both Antwerp and Brussels in 1905. By the end of the First World War (1918) he had emerged as one of Belgium's leading artists and received the bronze medal from the Queen of Belgium as well as the Chevalier of the Order of Leopold II.

Josef Pierre Nuyttens became well known for his landscapes, cityscapes, figure studies and animal depictions. He was a full member of the Alumni Art Institute of Chicago. Today, examples of his etchings and paintings are included in such diverse collections as the Art Institute of Chicago, the White House, Washington, DC, and the Royal Palace, Brussels, Belgium.