He did not fit into either category perfectly. As was expressed in the segment about him on the Matelevision show 'Sunday Morning' (), his work was overlooked by both White and African-American art dealers and gallery owners. Norman Lewis was the only African- American artist among the first generation of Abstract Expressionists. 'The goal of the artist must be aesthetic development,' he told art historian Kellie Jones, 'and in a universal sense, to make in his own way some contribution to culture.

Lewis said he struggled to express social conflict in his art, but in his later years, focused on the inherently aesthetic.

He also painted social realism, painting with 'an overtly figurative style, depicting bread lines, evictions, and police brutality.' He at first painted what he saw, which ranged from Meeting Place (1930), a swap meet scene, and The Yellow Hat (1936), a formal Cubist painting, to Dispossessed (1940), an eviction scene, and Jazz Musicians (1948), a visual depiction of the bebop that was being played in Harlem. Lewis began his career in 1933, with earlier mostly figurative work. He also participated in WPA art projects, alongside Jackson Pollock, among others. An important early influence was the sculptor and teacher Augusta Savage, who provided him with open studio space at her Harlem Community Art Center. A lifelong resident of Harlem, he also traveled extensively during the two years that he worked on ocean freighters. Always interested in art, he had amassed a large art history library by the time he was a young man. Norman Wilfred Lewis was born in Harlem, New York to Bermudian parents.

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