Noah Becker
in Studio
by Jessica Furseth

On Face Series

The subjects in Noah Becker’s new paintings look caught slightly unawares. His most recent works are classic portraits, head and shoulders, where the people are prepared to be depicted. But instead of catching them when they are smiling, Becker’s canvases show something else. It is like there was an unintended shrug or a sigh that was there just for a second, but Becker saw it and grabbed on to it and it is now forever on the canvas. The artist seems to have his own agenda with these portraits; while it is other people’s faces that take centre stage, it is his voice that is ultimately heard.

“Portraits are traditionally about the figure being triumphant or existing in some kind of perfect world with perfect feelings,” says Becker. “An artist does not always need to follow rules to make things like pictures of people.”

This freedom to break the rules comes with a distinct pop culture tang, as the portraits are heavy with contrasting colours and a distinctly retro feel from the hair and clothes of the people. Having said that, these could also be images of bleeding edge hipsters, plucked straight out of London’s Dalston or New York’s Williamsburg. Becker will readily admit to the pop culture element in his new works: “Yes, a bit pop culture. Some of them are 30 inches by 30 inches, the dimensions of a Warhol portrait canvas. The square format has this funny loaded geometry that makes them look kind of modern. The square changes things in the same way a portrait in a circle would function.”

And then Becker whips it up further by bringing up the historical painter Velasquez, an expert rule-breaker during his employment by Count-Duke of Olivares; “It is when Velasquez takes artistic licence his paintings really get interesting.” Becker’s images may be seeped with historic and cultural references, but in a sense, they become ultra-modern when considering that mashing it up is a core feature of our own times.

The colourplay in Becker’s portraits are a gorgeous feature, like the blue skin on strictly contrasting yellow in ‘New girl’, or ‘Sixth generation master’ where a pink-fleshed redhead is seen against a backing perfectly representing the colour a man who will never tan. “I wanted the colour to have a certain kind of pastel quality. In pop art so many of the colours are jarring pure colours, so in a sense if there is a pop art influence it has been keyed down as to open the picture up to less flat treatments.” This depth becomes clear in ‘Tito’, where the contrast around the lips is elegantly exaggerated with heavy blues and whites, or in ‘For men who appreciate history’, where the almost-flat skin is softly accented with greys at the mouth, steely blue at the cheeks, red at the nose.

The new portraits are a diversion from Becker’s previous ‘Realms’ series, where a whole little world would be spread out on the canvas. But Becker is not so quick to go along with this as being a major shift, but more just a different way to look at things.

“The ‘Realms’ series was about using the figure, still life and landscape in a single painting. Goya, for example, created his ‘Disasters of War’ and also produced many portrait paintings both full figure and group portraits. Francis Bacon made many portraits but then went back to the full figure and so forth. All I am really doing is making my work more expansive,” says Becker. He adds that he worked on singular portraits before the ‘Realms’ series, meaning this is more of a circling back to something old with a twist; “When I return to a ‘Realms’ style it will also be informed in a different way.”

The new portraits do however differ by placing a lot more responsibility on the viewer to form an opinion on what Becker is trying to say. After all, with ‘Realms’ he did it all for us, with the giant tuba players, the rifle-carrying hunters, the stuffed toy floating in the underground lake. It was not at all obvious of course, but he gave us heaps to work with. The new portraits, as colourful as they are, are almost stark in comparison. So what is he hoping viewers will take away from this work?

While Becker is a good sport when answering the question, it is hard to say whether he is shy about it or if he genuinely does not know: “It would be too Freudian to say that I hope they are reminded of something. I am trying to make paintings but I am also trying to make objects. This is a difficult question because paintings need a certain amount of time to be written about and experienced without bias. I like to say things about my work, but I never try to pin a certain way of looking on the viewer.”

Becker is currently working on more portraits to add to the series, as well as some bigger, full-figure paintings. He is also working with a filmmaker for a new documentary about the New York art world, he is writing new music, and he continues to run Whitehot magazine of contemporary art. “Most people spend more time of Facebook and Twitter than on any kind of creative work,” says Becker when asked about how he balances his various interests. “Writing and publishing is an important part of documenting yourself and documenting your era.”

It would seem Becker is one of those people who are happiest when he has a million projects on the go; at least that is what I am guessing when Becker says he does not see his multiple artistic outlets as an internal competition jostling for favouritism. Still, he asserts, his primary goal is finishing this new series of portrait paintings. Whatever else is happening comes secondary to that: “I am always painting.”

—London, Date of Article