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By nature. Interview. Noah Becker

Noah Becker has always been special. As a child Noah Becker was a great painter already. He would play the saxophone in the forest in Canada and make large paintings outdoors. Noah Becker was so connected with nature that insects would gravitate and become caught in his wet paintings. The trapped bugs would remain in the paint - like a prehistoric discovery on an archeological excavation site.
Artist Noah Becker
Artist Noah Becker

What is art for you?
Art is a mystery. I’m always making art and writing about art and thinking about art. Art is constantly being reevaluated. I think it’s the challenge of uncovering more aspects of this mysterious thing that no one seems to resolve.

Where do you find your inspiration?
I like German Expressionism, old master paintings and various 19th century artists. My short list of artists who inspire me would be: Van Gogh, Basquiat, De Kooning, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Francis Bacon, David Hockney and more. I’m always looking at other art for inspiration.

How would you describe your work?
Something I would’ve abandoned a long time ago if it wasn’t really good. But I have a talent and sometimes I look at my work and feel amazed. Not in an ego sort of way but in a way where it’s really speaking to me like great art does.

What is your workflow?
Sometimes I’ll just start by making a drawing. And drawings can be kind of free and expressive. Then I’ll convert that drawing into a painting. But sometimes I just paint something. I spent some time with Frank Stella and he taught me a lot about how to start a painting. It’s kind of like you start something and then run out of energy and finish it later.

It’s what the abstract expressionists called the „leftover space.“ So, I think about how to deal with that after my first run at a picture.

You are also the founder of „Whitehot Magazine“.
Yes and the magazine is a very popular art magazine now after 15 years. I started hosting a Whitehot Magazine art world podcast recently, which is worth checking out. It’s been a personal history altering experience working with the magazine. My personal history changed and we have also directly changed the history of art.

What is your focus in terms of content?
We started as a very Warholian thing in a sense. But we also like to just let what’s happening in the world be mirrored in what we’re publishing about. The focus is what the writers bring in. We select what is to be published from what the writers are seeing in the world.

Noah Becker, Midnight at the Mini-Golf, 2020, 48 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas
Midnight at the Mini-Golf, 2020, 48 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas

How does social media influence your life?
Social media takes up a lot of time. I think we’ve been pushed into the addiction of social media through smart phones. So I try to do tangible things on social media and promote my work. I don’t play a lot of online games or other things. My interaction with social media is publishing and art.

What are you currently working on?
I’m working on some 6′ x 5′ paintings – bigger paintings. My standard size is 4′ x 3′ and I’m working on the idea of my art. The idea of my art is kind of like a landscape scenario with various things happening in each landscape. It’s a bit like installation the way it’s put together and thought of. I’m trying to make it something that is perpetual in the sense that I can keep exploring it.

Podcast. Art World: Whitehot Magazine with Noah Becke‪r
Noah Becker – www.noahbeckerart.com