Noah Becker - 2006

At Winchester Galleries on Broad Street

Opening: Saturday, July 8, 2006 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Artist in attendance Exhibition continues until July 22, 2006

Noah Becker is gifted in presenting contrasts of light and dark and of vivid colour juxtaposed to neutral tones. The draughtsmanship of his 1990s work often evokes Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and Max Beckmann, i.e. their employment of exaggerated form, colour and energetic brushwork. Light/dark ups the graphics, a bold gestalt comes through, the strong darks jump forward, occupy the foreground; vibrant colours advance, broken colours recede. Such accentuations are aspects of Becker's expressionistic painting style to the present day but recently that that format and also the format of his drawings have changed. The fairly frequent single human figure has typically been replaced by small multiple figures. To do this Becker has engaged a montage approach such as used by Hieronymous Bosch. In addition, simplified contour as seen in Bosch is taken up by Becker and succeeds, it may be argued, in establishing a bridge in time and maybe formal viability. As in Bosch paintings the painted figures may not necessarily be portrayed as seeing or thinking of each other but their particular actions are social repercussions and precipitate new ones. The individual as a connected entity may even be assumed from a work of art which depicts not just one person but two or more people.

Other recent influences for Becker have been Brueghel and Goya. A particular talent for improvisation leads Becker to synthesize cogently from such sources as indeed from current ones. How to convey in paint or in some other artistic medium the feelings, thoughts, values behind or in the physical form? That there is sustained improvisation which guides the making of these artworks is suggested, certainly, by their intriguing details and possibly by our response to them. It should not be surprising that Becker is also an accomplished jazz musician.

Collections of Noah Becker's artwork in Victoria include several paintings at the Royal Theatre and a larger group at the Maltwood Art Museum on the university campus.