Odd, isn’t it? I’d bet that many of today’s filmmakers and novelists who embrace “Noir” as a genre, reimagining vintage noir of the 30‘s-40’s-50’s, or creating their own contemporary or neo-noir, were influenced not only by the film classics that gave birth to the genre – Double Indemnity, Road House, Dead Reckoning, Gilda, Out Of The Past and so many, many others – but also by the cover art from the 1930’s and 1940’s pulp magazines and the 1950’s and 1960’s paperback mysteries and crime novels. There’s as much oil paint and gouache as there is celluloid and klieg lights behind it all. Further, contemporary commercial artists (some who bridge the chasm between commercial illustration and ‘fine art’ as well) like Richie Fahey, Glen Orbik and others clearly embrace the Noir style or choose to work in a Noir aesthetic, but again – these folks are doing commercial assignments for book covers, film posters, CD covers, and ads.

So, whither the Noir artists in the so-called “Fine Arts” world. Is there such a thing as “Noir-Artica” at all?

Jack Vettriano comes to mind, of course. But also Robert Hefferan. Diane Gall. Gina Higgins. Hmmmm, mighty short list. Some will list Eric Fischl, quick to point out his enormous so-called ‘suburban-noir’ paintings. I’ll pass and save the vitriol for some other post.

I’ll refer you to a prior series of posts here on my blog (kylemarffin.com) and re-blogged on Tumblr (kylemarffin.tumblr.com) called “Vampire Sprinkles And Noir Sauce”, where I rambled across four sequential posts about the clichés of the Vampire and Noir genres, but noting how much I loved all those clichés, mind you.

I mention those posts because it intrigues me that the Noir-ish artists listed above so clearly embrace the clichés along with the ‘feel’, the styling, the composition and the lighting of what we know as a ‘Noir Aesthetic’. It’s all there: The fedoras, dark suits, suspenders, revolvers, the guys in dress slacks and wife-beater undershirts, the gals in slinky slips or garter belts and stockings…and everyone is smoking. Jack Vettriano – Studio Life notes: “Profiles are set, clothing seductively tweaked, and the props of his trade distributed and applied: lingerie, lipstick and Louboutin heels.” Anthony Quinn explains in Jack Vettriano – Lovers And Other Strangers: “In the alluring and sinister world of his art, the drama of men and women together is played out against a backdrop of bars and clubs, seasides and racetracks, ballrooms and bedrooms. The time is slightly out of joint. The characters wear clothes reminiscent of forties melodramas – a dark suit and snap-brimmed hat for him, a slash of red lipstick, silk stockings and a dress a la Gloria Grahame for her. Everybody smokes, stylishly. Where is this place, this retroland of glamour and sleaze? Not of our time, surely, yet the details of their composition – a provocative pose, a yearning expression, a cigarette held just so – are certainly of our world, a kind of limbo where past and present collide, a dance to the music outside of time.”

I adore Jack Vettriano’s work. The Scottish painter takes a lot of flak from the art world’s highbrow elite, perhaps simply because he’s gained awareness among the general public and become quite popular. Get your painting reproductions on top-selling posters, and the art world critics, meta-critics and Friday Night Gallery Opening moochers will surely turn their backs on you. Vettriano actually does all kinds of other paintings as well, some sunny and fairly cheerful, some commemorative, and I bet there’s quite a few suburban dining rooms and bedrooms sporting framed Vettriano lithographs and posters, whose owners would be appalled to see some of his darker, more ‘Noir-ish’, titillating and even occasionally perverse paintings.

Noir Art isn’t a boys club. Artist Diane Gall explains, “Film Noir is hard hitting, truthful and a slap of reality. The allure of beauty often hides what lies beneath…I found my personal experiences have made me search for a metaphor to describe how I was feeling, and Film Noir was the obvious vehicle for me. What has taken time is how to make my own version of Noir…my ‘Femme Noir’.” California artist Gina Higgins employs the dramatic low-key lighting and edgy, angled points-of-view characteristic of classic film noir, her acrylic paintings often composed as montages reminiscent of film posters themselves. Rob Hefferan was well along in a successful career as an illustrator, and then segueing into portraiture. In the early 2000’s he broke out as a fine artist with his moody, often dark and Noir-ish tinged paintings of sultry women, lovers, and femmes fatales, sometimes in clubs, sometimes in plush Manhattan parlors, and sometimes in bed.

These are a few, and wonderful artists they are, each one. Jack Vettriano may be the grandmaster of the bunch at this point, having been at it for a while now. Gall, Higgins and Hefferan surely have long careers ahead of them and it’ll be interesting to see if they continue to probe and explore the Noir milieu in their work.

And I’ll continue to be on the lookout for film and literature’s Noir counterparts in the fine art world. In particular, I’m searching for what might be called the “Neo-Noir” counterparts: That is, those artists who forego the clichés (the fedoras, shoulder holsters, nylons and cigarettes) but achieve the elusive Noir aesthetic in contemporary or timeless settings. Love to hear back from viewers and followers if you have artists to suggest. Not illustrators, mind you (though I love ‘em all!). But the gallery, exhibition and museum crowd. Let me hear from you.

And go to http://pinterest.com/kylemarffin/ for a board full of pins and postings of individual Noir Art works.

Thank you Kyle, for the mention...

Kyle Marffin is a midwestern-based writer whose 1998 debut novel "Carmilla: The Return" (a sequel to Le Fanu's classic novella) was nominated for the International Horror Guild Award For First Novel.

You can learn more about the author at: kylemarffin.com/