Hector-Bau > Ebene 2 > Schaudepot
Background
Georges Noël is one of the most important representatives of a scriptural Art Informel which developed in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe and the USA. At the age of thirty Noël moved to Paris, from which time he completely dedicated himself to abstract painting. It was here that he met the first generation of Art Informel painters, who in an existential manner postulated the total freedom of subjectivity. In accordance with their nihilistic ideas, only being can be opposed to nothingness, which is why the task is to give expression to this being. In contrast to the majority of Informalists who worked in oils, Noël oriented himself on Jean Dubuffet, employing self-colored sand, glue, and marble powder in order to achieve the desired material depth.
The increased volume of the picture corpus and the concentrated materials generated surprising moments. The material’s resistance facilitated a process of active engagement, increasing the energy, intensity, and concentration of his work, assisting him in switching of consciousness. At great speed he scribbled and scratched, furrowed and churned up the picture surface. He was not interested in the figurative pictorial world, attempting to give written expression to his subjectivity in the spontaneous gestures of abstract calligraphy.
Noël‘s layered calligraphic pictures bear a resemblance to antique parchments (palimpsests) written over several times, although their materiality is more reminiscent of the graffiti of prehistoric cave paintings. However, in contrast to these historic written documents, Noël does not use any existing sign system or communicate any objective meaning. Instead, his works represent a spontaneous transcription of both psychological and spiritual being. The gesture constitutes the point of transition between being and non-being, between the visible and the invisible, with the categories dissolving in the movement—a method reminiscent of the Surrealist Écriture automatique.
Noël remained faithful to this pictorial language throughout his life, however over the years a more clearly defined structure emerged through the use of dividing lines and areas. The characters become transformed into networks and stripes, ultimately assuming geometrical forms and growing into reliefs.
On loan from the Friends of the Kunsthalle Mannheim e.V. since 2013; gift of Dr. Hanns-Dieter Hasselbach