The exhibition “Head Over Heels” offers a comprehensive insight into Martin Noël’s artistic work. It includes works in wood and linoleum, as well as drawings and prints on paper and cardboard.
We first encountered Noël’s works at Art Karlsruhe 2022. When we exhibit at an art fair, each of us deliberately goes on a journey of discovery alone. Only at the end do we each report what piqued our interest. Sometimes it happens that we notice the same object or the same artist. Martin Noël’s paintings captivated all three of us together – and that at the expansive Art Karlsruhe!
I will never forget the feeling I had when I first saw Noël’s works. They seemed simple yet very bold. It was the cheeky carefreeness of these works that challenged and captivated me.
A paper work about my size, with a black line on a red background. Precisely because it is on a monochrome background, the attention is drawn purely to the form of the captured line. The structure and the associated pictorial space are in themselves a coherent composition that represents something or someone. The lines are so embodied and consciously crafted. They weren’t simply drawn arbitrarily; no, these lines and cracks tell stories.
It was clear to us that we wanted to learn more about this person and his work. While we were still at the fair, we contacted the Noël family. A wonderful friendship has since developed.
A heartfelt thank you to the Noël family, Margarete and Cora Noël, and Wenzel Jacob, for the fantastic collaboration.
Thomas Schafflützel, Galerie WOS
