Norman Daly

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Norman D. Daly (August 9, 1911 - April 12, 2008), was an American artist who created the fictional ancient civilization of Llhuros along with hundreds of its artefacts. His work on The Civilization of Llhuros starting in the 1960s makes him one of the earliest practitioners of an art genre now known as fictive archaeology.[1]

Family and education[]

Daly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of seven children of Rose (Owens) Daly and James A. Daly. He first studied art at Carnegie Tech before going on major in art at the University of Colorado (BA 1937). After spending a year in Paris (1937-38), he got his MFA at Ohio State University.[2]

Daly married Helen O. Gebbie in 1942, and they had two sons, David and Nicholas.[2]

Career[]

In 1942, Daly joined the Cornell University Department of Art, where he taught painting and drawing. He retired in the 1970s but continued to teach as Professor Emeritus until 1999.[2]

Daly began exhibiting paintings in the 1940s, but in the 1960s his work broadened to include sculpture, especially assemblage. He became interested in art as a form of anthropology, and this line of thinking led him to create the imaginary Near Eastern civilization of Llhuros.[3] He situated Llhuros in Asia Minor just east of the Iron Age kingdom of Lydia (now western Turkey). The Civilization of Llhuros became the umbrella title for around 150 works that Daly went on to create as archaeological artefacts of Llhuros, including mosaics, frescoes, architectural fragments, vessels, ritual objects, jewelry, games, and musical and scientific instruments. The scale of these artefacts ranges from temple doors over 10 feet high to hand-held objects.[4] He also created fragments of Llhuroscian poetry and worked with the composer Robert Moog on Llhuroscian music.[3]

In 1972, Daly mounted an exhibition at the Andrew Dickson White Museum that included Lhuroscian artefacts along with reconstructions of Llhuroscian music and a Llhuroscian ceremony.[4] In addition, two fictional experts (an archaeologist and a paleogeographer) featured in a recording of "Adventures in Related Sciences," an imaginary radio show that Daly prepared for the exhibition.[4] The illustrated show catalog is structured like an archaeological publication, with detailed technical and historical information for each item.[3] It features remarks by several more highly credentialed experts in art and archaeology that Daly invented specifically as explainers and authenticators of Llhuroscian culture.[3] This combination of an invented archaeology together with skillful efforts to make the project appear to be actual history marks The Civilization of Llhuros as an exemplar of fictive art (also known as superfiction).

The Civilization of Llhuros exhibition toured for several years around the United States and in Germany. Daly's work later fell into relative obscurity but reemerged in 2019 when it was included in the Istanbul Biennial.

References[]

  1. ^ Evett, Kenneth. "The Civilization of Llhuros." The New Republic, Feb. 12, 1972.
  2. ^ a b c "Art Professor Norman Daly Dies at 96". Cornell Chronicle, May 2, 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d Jager, Nita, ed. The Civilization of Llhuros: An Exhibition of Artifacts from the Recent Excavations at Vanibo, Houndee, Draikum, and Other Sites. Ithaca, NY: The Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, 1972.
  4. ^ a b c Daly, Norman, with Beauvais Lyons. "The Civilization of Llhuros: The FirstMultimedia Exhibition in the Genre of Archaeological Fiction." Leonardo, vol. 24, no. 3, pp 265-271.

External links[]

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