Paul Noble: New Works

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Paul Noble: New Works at Gagosian, San Francisco, featuring new drawings made between 2015 and 2017. A meticulous visionary, Noble builds encrypted visual universes. Using language as image, and images as a grammatical system of signs, he shows the malleability of all forms of syntax, a legible schema of interlocking words, drawings, and objects. Noble’s art presents a reality that appears recognizably of our world—but is not.

The works in this catalogue unfold within flat planar settings, devoid of the epic scale and spatial breadth that have characterized Noble’s past compositions. The drawings are encased within heavy wooden frames of Noble’s own design, which often echo the framed images within the images; the suggestion—latent in Noble’s work—that a drawing can also be a sculpture emerges. The publication features an essay by James Lawrence.