"American Noir: Into a Dark Past" – Online gallery

10th May 2013, 12:16 am

RICHARD SAWDON SMITH, Listening to Myself: Closed, 2002,
C-type print, 24″ x 20″

As I looked at the works I’d chosen, it was obvious that one distinct part of my sensibility had come into play—a part I’ll call American noir. I borrow this term from film—as in film noir–of course, which refers to a genre of hardboiled American crime dramas of the 1940s and 50s shot in a German Expressionist-derived style of black-and-white cinematography. (Key examples include the films adapted from Raymond Chandler’s novels such as The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbeye.) They are simultaneously—and paradoxically—highly subjective but emotionally removed. Typically described as “stylized (melo)dramas that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations,” they are above all else—and this is unusual in visual art—highly narrative.

VisualAIDS – American Noir: Into a Dark Past

Published: 10th May 2013

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