David Noonan

Hotel Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2008

London, Saatchi Gallery, Out of Focus: Photography, 2012

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is much lighter and warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is wear to lower extreme edge and corner tips. Upon close inspection, there are a number of tiny nicks along the top extreme edge.
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Reminiscent of early film stills, David Noonan’s works inhabit a world of mystery and illusion in which narrative is delicately suggested rather than definitively expressed. Formed of fascinating amalgamations of disparate photographs and film footage which is then transferred onto a canvas or wood ground through screen printing, Noonan’s images are imbued with a curiously timeless quality through their colourless tones and startling combinations of people and places. Melissa Gronlund argues that: “Noonan explores a state of what might be called temporal exile: hangovers from the past in the present, folk symbols whose meanings are forgotten and, in a more general way, the lingering nostalgia for a grandeur lost before our time” (Melissa Gronlund, ‘Future Greats: David Noonan’ in: Art Review, March 2007, p. 79). Untitled encapsulates these distinctive features to powerful effect: spectral figures seem to float across the eerie scene, as though engaged in some form of ritualistic dance, whilst bare tree branches appear to cast dramatic shadows across the image; and the result is a work of disquieting yet poetic beauty.