Post on 13-May-2023
paul ryanstalking noah
29 AUGUST - 1 OCTOBER 2015
‘Halcyon’ Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579www.galleryecosse.com.auinfo@galleryecosse.com.au
02 4883 44660403 936 624
open fri - sat 10am - 5pmsun 10am - 3pm
or by appointment
Paul Ryan’s Portraits of Actor Noah Taylor
Choosing Noah Taylor as his 2015 Archibald Prize subject, 12 times short-listed finalist Paul Ryan quickly found that “one image became almost forty” and that his single entry had quickly blossomed to become thirteen. Noah Taylor himself even admitted to being surprised. What’s more, Ryan’s exquisitely chaotic positioning of those thirteen images immediately reminded Taylor “of a ‘classic stalker’s bedroom’”.
Those Thirteen Noahs had each found their home - iconoclastically over-painted on op-shop discards. “With these works,” Ryan declares, “I am painting Noah as a fictional character in fictional films. There is Noah the mysterious figure in ‘Murders at the Lake’, Noah as a black American pimp in ‘Hawaiian Hustle,’ Noah in the Australian classic ‘Death on the Murray’, and Noah in ‘Outback Wanderer’”.
This is something that veteran academic, curator and art historian, Joanna Mendelssohn, instantly recognised in her perceptive survey of the entries in the 2015 Archibald. Thirteen Noahs “is based on different images, some distorted, each superimposed on discarded artworks – including a tapestry and ping-pong bats. Taylor has inserted himself in such a wide range of characters on film and television that it makes sense for him to appear as a part of the scenery with kitsch naked ladies, landscapes and a dog. It might not have been awarded the prize, but it is easily the most exciting work in the show.”
As a good lapsed-Catholic boy, Paul Ryan must almost certainly have read (and unconsciously imbibed) the following lines from Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” And multiply they did - for Ryan’s Thirroul studio was replenished to the point of overflowing.
Here for your delectation at Gallery Ecosse is a connoisseur’s distillation of just that overflow – yet none of these are the kind of scenes which might ever have washed-up on the cutting room floor of some imagined Noah Taylor movie. Instead, this is the overflow of an infinitely restless, inventive and irreverent artistic mind.
Ryan has worked overtime on what Anna Johnson terms Noah Taylor’s “pixyish, vulnerable, weathered, anti-heroic” face. The actor looks equally irreverently elegant on a ping-pong bat, as a most mature and hirsute baby Jesus and even when he appears centre-stage on top of an op-shop print of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
This current delineation of Noah Taylor as one of Ryan’s enduring artistic obsessions provides the viewer with an elegant sufficiency of palette-knife loaves and fishes for all to feast upon. Characteristically, Ryan wears both his scholarship and his undeniable skill ever so lightly in this splendid show. His signature irreverence mimics the myriad possible distortions of which an actor’s greasepaint is capable – and transfers them onto op-shop canvas, glass and plywood.
Here, at Gallery Ecosse, Paul Ryan has worked his revelatory magic on nearly all of our painterly notions of what, precisely, an actor’s face might actually be.
Joseph DavisThirroul, August 2015
ReferencesAnna Johnson, “Love Me to Death: 13 Noahs by Paul Ryan”, Artist Profile, July 16 2015 Joanna Mendelssohn, Nigel Milsom wins the Archibald, our ‘most fun’ festival of faces, The Conversation, July17, 2015Joseph Davis, “Paul Ryan: Portraits without heads, landscapes without memory”, Amagazine, August, 2012
Thirteen Noahs, 2015237 x 282 cm
Oil on mixed found and bought objects
Archibald Prize 2015 AGNSW
Install view
Contact:Andre de Borde
andre@galleryecosse.com.au
Gallery Ecosse at ‘Halcyon’Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579
www.galleryecosse.com.auinfo@galleryecosse.com.au
02 4883 44660403 936 624
open fri - sat 10am - 5pmsun 10am - 3pm
or by appointment
Noah and parrot - The lake, 201546 x 76cm
Oil on found painting
Price (including GST): $4,600
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Mountain parrot, 201551 x 57cm
Oil on found object
Price (including GST): $2,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Blue mountains Noah, 2015 79 x 68cm
Oil on found framed painting
Price (including GST): $5,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Alpine Magpie, 201575 x 35cm
Oil on found framed print
Price (including GST): $3,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Paul RyanKookaburra and prey, 2015
72 x 61cmOil on linen
Price (including GST): $5,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Wuthering heights Noah, 201557 x 47cm Oil on found print
Price (including GST): $3,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subjectto change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days fromthe date of this correspondence
Disc Noah, 201544cm diametre
Oil on found object
Price (including GST): $2,800
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Dr Zhivago Noah, 2015 66 x 96cm
Oil on found framed painting
Price (including GST): $6,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Ping pong Noah I, 201527.5 x 16cm
Oil on ping pong bat
Price (including GST): $750
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Ping pong Noah II, 201525.5 x 15cm
Oil on ping pong bat
Price (including GST): $750
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Paul RyanAfter Glow, 2015
87 x 71cmOil on linen
Price (including GST): $6,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Drinks tray Noah, 201544.5 x 33cm
Oil on wooden tray
Price (including GST): $2,900
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Last supper Noah, 2015 35 x 77cm Oil on framed print
Price (including GST): $3,700
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subjectto change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days fromthe date of this correspondence
Birth of Noah, 201556 x 114cm Oil on found framed print
Price (including GST): $5,200
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subjectto change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days fromthe date of this correspondence
Snow drift Noah, 201566 x 95cm
Oil on found painting
Price (including GST): $6,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Alex, 2014 60 x 44cm
Oil on linen
Price (including GST): $4,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Convict with Magpies, 2015122 x 122cm
Oil on linen
Price (including GST): $12,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Jayden, 2014 91 x 61cm
Oil on linen
Price (including GST): $6,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Corey, 2014 91 x 61cm
Oil on linen
Price (including GST): $6,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Meadow dreaming Noah, 201554 x 44cm
Oil on found framed painting
Price (including GST): $3,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Noah, Belgium 40 x 50cm
Oil on found framed painting
Price (including GST): $3,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Tapestry Noah, 2015 45 x 32cm
Oil on found tapestry
Price (including GST): $2,300
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Rosella bouquet 1, 201580 x 34cm
Oil on found painting
Price (including GST): $4,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Rosella bouquet 2, 201580 x 34cm
Oil on found painting
Price (including GST): $4,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Ping pong Noah III, 201525.5 x 15cm
Oil on ping pong bat
Price (including GST): $750
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Ping pong Christmas, 201525.5 x 15cm
Oil on ping pong bat
Price (including GST): $750
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Ping pong Noah IV, 201525.5 x 15cm
Oil on ping pong bat
Price (including GST): $750
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Ping pong Noah V, 201525.5 x 15cm
Oil on ping pong bat
Price (including GST): $750
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Tequila Sunrise Noah, 201551 x 66cm
Oil on found framed painting
Price (including GST): $3,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Skinny Nick, 199478 x 55.5cm
Oil on board
Price (including GST): $5,500
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence
Sick Nick, 199466.5 x 50cm
Oil on board
Price (including GST): $5,000
Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject
to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from
the date of this correspondence