Norman Pate (1922-2004)
Untitled
Wood, date unknown, 9 ½” x 28”
Noble Maritime Collection

By the time he died in 2004, Norman Pate (1922-2004), a decorated World War II Marine Corps veteran, was thought to be the most prolific artist on Staten Island. Badly wounded at Iwo Jima, where he lost the use of his right hand, he spent two years recuperating and was awarded the Purple Heart. But the injury gave him direction, and he followed his compelling desire to make art by enrolling in the Art Students League at a time when New York was becoming the world capital of contemporary art. His early work was representational, but his exceptional facility as a draftsman may explain why he embraced abstraction for most of his career. For 20 years, he rented a studio at Snug Harbor, and in 1998 the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art celebrated his 50-year career with a major retrospective exhibition.