Cady Noland

Known for her provocative and critical exploration of American culture, Cady Noland’s collages, sculptures and mixed-media installations deal with our society’s fascination with celebrities, violence and everyday desires. Noland was born in 1956 in Washington, D.C., to the renowned Colour Field painter Kenneth Noland. Cady Noland dedicates her career to the exploration of an American dream turned nightmare.

Metal is a signature material in Noland’s oeuvre, often working with found objects such as beer cans, flags, guns and metal barriers. Her unique visual vocabulary conveys a sense of frigidity and hardness that is representative of the subjects her addresses in her work, namely crime and profligate waste.

In her most notable work, Bluewald (1989), Noland excerpts journalist Robert H. Jackson’s Pulitzer prize-winning image of Lee Harvey Oswald — the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, dotted with dramatically oversized ‘bullet’ holes. Recalling the aesthetic of John Baldessari’s iconic dot paintings and employing the graphic sensibility of Pop, Noland reflects on America’s fetishism of bloodshed and stardom. This iconic work sold for US$9,797,000 at Christie’s New York in 2015, a world auction record for the artist.

Noland’s influence extends beyond her artwork to her reclusive persona and her rigorous control over the presentation and sale of her pieces. Despite her relatively limited output and public appearances, her works have achieved significant acclaim, reflecting their impact and desirability in the art market. Noland withdrew from the public eye in the late 1990s, becoming one of the art world’s most enigmatic figures.