A great uproar was created in the local press and in the Spanish Government when word reached them about the paintings.  James Michener describes this in his book "Iberia".

"Norman Narotzky was an American working in Barcelona, for he was married to a girl of that city, and while I knew him a notable storm developed over a painting of his which synthesized his reflections on Spanish history. A friend told me of the work before I had a chance to see it for myself:  'I'm afraid Norman was ill advised.  You see he's done a pair of portraits of Fernando and Isabel and titled them "The Catholic Kings." '   I said I thought this was appropriate for an American, since it was these kings who had launched the discovery of our country, but my informant said,  'I'm afraid you don't understand.  The portraits, which are really very fine, serve only as the kick-off point for what Narotzky really wants to say.  Accompanying them are symbols of religious repression through the ages.  The swastika, the crucified Christ wearing robes used by the Inquisition.  It's a real beauty!  Norman has omitted nothing.

"The two paintings which I liked so much that I tried to buy them, (Note: eventually Michener bought the "Picasso" seen below) evoked a scandal.  A government official pointed out that since Spain was officially sponsoring a movement to have Isabel declared a saint, the painting was not only offensive to the nation's historical sense but sacrilegious as well.  He fulminated that his country did not intend to sit idly by and allow intellectuals to cast aspersions on the grandeur of the Spanish heritage... Narotzky was investigated; inquiries were made at the American embassy; and the dealer who had exhibited the work was badgered by the police with all sorts of hampering restrictions."

(Iberia by James A. Michener, Copyright Random House NY 1968).

In the detail of Fernando we see, in his crown, victims of the Holocaust in a concentration camp as well as other victims of racial, religious and political persecution.  An image of Hitler is in his eye.

At right, Isabel wears, as a necklace, tortured victims of the Inquisition. The central figure is superimposed on an image of a concentration camp victim.

The New York Times, Sunday, June 11, 1967, in an article "New Pressures on the New Spanish Paintings" comments on the government reaction to my paintings:

"...The works - coming at a moment when there was a concerted drive to have Queen Isabel Canonized - were interpreted as direct political attacks. 'I regret we didn't hear about the show in time to close it, Ministry of Information and Tourism's Chief of Audio-Visual and Plastic Arts, Carlos Antonio Arean told Narotzky when he visited the artist's studio to see the paintings.

"Subsequently, Arean publicly denounced these paintings, their author and the gallery that showed them.  In an article in Nuestro Tiempo in March, after making a special issue of the artist's and gallery owner's foreign origins, he went on to say: "Here in Spain...despite our alleged dictatorship, these canvases were able to be exhibited.  Clearly this will not happen again, because necessary measures have already been taken to prevent any attack against our generous history from slipping into any exhibition."

And indeed, at the opening of my next exhibition in Barcelona some years later at another gallery, the owner introduced me to a man who told me that he was a secret policeman, sent by the government to check out the show to make sure that there was nothing offensive in it.

Carlos Arean replied to the NY Times article in a letter to the editor published on Sunday. September 17, 1967:

"Allusion is made to my reaction to American artist Norman Narotzky's painting of Queen Isabella the Catholic, placed on exhibition in the gallery run by a French dealer in Barcelona.

"What Mr. Wilson omits to say is that both this painting as well as the one of King Ferdinand of Aragon, Isabella the Catholic's husband, were blatantly insulting.  For instance, in the cleavage shown in the picture of Isabella the Catholic, four masculine figures were to be seen sliding down inside the royal bosom.  I am sure that a similar attack, by a foreign artist residing in the United States against any great national figure, would deserve the same rebuff as the one by the Spaniards, including myself, who saw Narotzky's painting of our Great Queen."

Isabel La Católica, detail, Hair

Isabel La Católica, detail, Auto da Fe

Fernando El Católico, detail, Hat and Eye

Isabel La Católica, detail, Necklace

"...four masculine figures were to be seen sliding down inside the royal bosom."

In this detail of Fernando's Collar we can see a picture of the neo-nazi Lincoln Rockwell as well as images of the Ku Klux Klan

The "Torquemada Retablo" was painted a year later and was never shown in Spain.  It was   shown in Florence in 1967 at the "First Intrarealist Exhibition" at the Palazzo Strozzi where it was sold to a collector from NY.  It was at this exhibition that Richard T. Hirsch, who was then the curator of the Michener Collection saw the "Reyes Católicos" as well as my portrait of Picasso, which, after consultation with Michener, he decided to purchase for the Collection.

"Torquemada Retablo", 1967 /  Acrylic, 182 cms. x  137 cms. /  72" x 54".

With my wife Mercedes at the Second Intrarealist Exhibition, O'Hana Gallery, London, 1968. My portrait of Columbus is in the center.

"For Castilla and For Leon Columbus Found a New World" was painted at the time that a Viking map had been discovered that indicated an earlier encounter with the New World.  The painting includes a fragment of this map as well as images of Columbus' three ships.

"Por Castilla y por Leon Nuevo Mundo Halló Colon", Collage and Acrylic 1966.  162 cms. x 162 cms.  / 64" x 64"

The title "Sueño y Verdad de Picasso" (Dream and Truth of Picasso) is a take-off on the title of Picasso's etchings of 1937 critical of the Franco regime which he entitled "Sueño y Mentira de Franco (Dream and Lie of Franco).  I incorporated, as collage, portions of these etchings as well as fragmentary images from the "Guernica".  This painting did manage to "slip into an exhibition" in Homage to Picasso in Barcelona.

"Sueño y Verdad de Picasso, 1967, 146 x 114 cms. / 57" x 45" / Acrylic and Collage.

The individual panels of the "Gran Cruz" were painted in 1967.  The cross was not assembled until 1998 and has not yet been exhibited anyplace

"La Gran Cruz de Isabel La Católica" 1967 / 200 cms. x 156 cms. / 83" x 61" / Acrylic.