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7/18/2014 Noah Becker on Portraiture, Convention and Magic | The Brooklyn Quarterly

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Noah Becker on Portraiture, Convention and MagicBy Kayla Tanenbaum

You could say we’re in an artsy mood. We sat down with another visual artist, Noah

Becker (http://noahbeckerart.com/), whose show is currently at the Lodge Gallery

(http://www.thelodgegallery.com/) on Chrystie Street, to talk about portraiture and

the state of contemporary art. Becker isn’t only a painter, though — he also plays the

saxophone professionally and is the editor-in-chief of WhiteHot magazine, a

publication focusing on the contemporary art scene. When asked about the multiple

pools into which he has his toes dipped, Becker refers to the “Warholian model of

not being just one thing” — read on to find out exactly what that means.



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Courtesy of Noah Becker

TBQ: You’re known for portraits. How’d you get into that?

Noah Becker: Well, I like the figurative aspect of portraits. I like portraits that are

valuable contemporary art, but they’re not just something to hang over the fire place.

They could also be in a museum context.

TBQ: Are there conventions of portraiture you don’t follow?

NB: I think when I have multiple figures in one frame, it’s a mash up; it’s a collage

thing where there are different elements, and it doesn’t represent a known person or

someone who specifically posed for a portrait. It starts to move outside of

portraiture. But a lot of the paintings that I do are of anonymous people, and they’re

still portraits, they’re just portraits of unknown subjects.

TBQ: How do you find the subjects?

NB: Well, in the case of these paintings, they’re British hair models from

vintage photo sources, from like ‘60s and ‘70s—so they’re actually amateur models

posing with perfect hair, and I think that that also goes against the definition of

portrait painting, because it’s, they’re not posing proudly for the camera or being

idealized, but they’re just kind of awkward.

TBQ: They almost look like they were caught off guard, which of interesting

when you think of the conventions of portraiture, Kings staring proudly… These

people seem to have a lot less agency. There’s no gaze back at the viewer.

NB:I got to the point where I realized that technique is not necessarily what art

is about, but I enjoyed using the technique that I learned, so how do I use the

technical skill I have for two dimensional, illusionary realism and still present

contemporary art? That’s the question. Because you get pushed into this

traditionalist genre, especially if you’re doing portraits.



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TBQ: Do you ever imagine them as having inner lives?

NB: I think you’re giving them an emotional life, or you’re making them lookcompletely like soulless, but either way, there’s something really strong happeningthere, whereas I think traditional portraiture tries to aim for something very middleground.

TBQ: What draws you to this type of work?

NB: I think I’m drawn to the idea of trying to make something alive withan inanimate material, the magic that could be instilled in something that’sinanimate.

TBQ: Another thing that I think is really interesting about these works is thatyou kind of purposely chose people that, because of the way they’re dressed andtheir hair, they look kind of dated.

NB: Right. There is that overlap between current styles and older styles, butalso, the idea of making something that looks like it’s 30 or 40 years old alreadyas opposed to making something that is supposed to represent what’s new.

TBQ: What about these series of paintings that directly reference other artists?

NB: Well, these are directly relating to the selfie. Also, it’s a way of enteringthe canon deliberately instead of waiting for something that you’ve done to enterthe canon accidentally. It’s also a commentary on the way that big value art and blue-chip art seems to be what draws most of the collectors in now, almost like theyare losing their ability to engage with something new.



TBQ: Why did you choose these specific artists [Basquiat, Warhol andLichtenstein]?

NB: This was a reaction to Gagosian Gallery not allowing us to take photos oftheir Basquiat retrospective. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to just make apainting of myself standing in front of the painting and it would be much morepermanent?” I think it’s indicative of the digital age and the kind of photographicWild West that goes on.



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TBQ: Do you have an ideological underpinning to your work?

NB: I want [viewers] to experience a certain amount of mastery, but at the sametime, I want to present contemporary art. The challenge is how to makethe technique be at the service of the idea. Since the digital age started andeverybody’s taking selfies and everybody’s using big digital cameras, everybodyseems to be a photographer or an artist of some kind, even if they’re not — that rateand that number of people who are sharing their visual ideas has exploded in the last10 or 15 years. So I think authenticity is being challenged.

TBQ: Do you think that the proliferation of technology that makes art reallyubiquitous is kind of denigrating it, or cheapening it?

NB: I think it’s making it harder to do good work, because there’s more peoplewho can satisfy the average person’s taste with something that uses a $5 to 15,000camera or whatever it is. I think equipment is starting to kind of trump certainpeople’s expectations of what something that’s great is supposed to be. I’d like toreact to some of these changes in painting, but without conforming to it in a way thatmakes my work too involved with it in a way that undermines the quality of whatI’m doing.

TBQ: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever gotten on your art?

NB: Showing in museums.

TBQ: You’re also a successful jazz musician. Do you ever find that your musicis influencing your painting, or vice versa?

NB: I haven’t gone that far into it, but certainly there are shapes and geometries



NB: I haven’t gone that far into it, but certainly there are shapes and geometries

in music that relate to the same kind of shape and mathematical geometries that

are found in painting.

TBQ: Do you get something different from music and from painting?

NB: I like the relaxation of painting. With music, it’s interactive, and

the performance is dependent on other people playing with you. As a person who’s

not always the biggest people person, I enjoy the solitude.

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