The Noble Maritime Collection presents the new exhibition ‘Noble Industrial’

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. —The Noble Maritime Collection has announced a new exhibition called “Noble Industrial,” which features rarely seen lithographs, paintings, and drawings by John A. Noble (1913–1983).

“Noble Industrial” is the largest themed exhibition of the Staten Island artist and sailor’s work in recent years, featuring nearly four dozen pieces. It will be on view at the museum at Snug Harbor Cultural Center through March 2, 2025.

While Noble is known for having chronicled the last days of the Age of Sail through his art — and the wrecks of those vessels that followed that era — he was also an advocate for the modern maritime industries that populated New York’s working waterfront in the 20th century.

“My work, whatever may be its virtues or lack of virtues, is totally contemporary, based on drawings made outdoors. I am an industrial printmaker...,” Noble wrote in 1977.

ABOUT “NOBLE INDUSTRIAL”

“Noble Industrial,” through the display of rarely seen work, contextualizes Noble and his relationship with industry within the century in which he lived and worked. He produced a majority of the pieces in the exhibition by way of commissions, which he actively sought from large companies, particularly in the early 1950s.

“These compositions demonstrate Noble’s dedication to accuracy and passion for preserving all aspects of New York City’s maritime history that he witnessed,” said Ciro Galeno, Jr., executive director of the Noble Maritime Collection. “As a result, his oeuvre depicts as much steel as it does wood, as many diesel vessels as it does schooners, and as much active building as it does wrecks and decay.”

“Noble Industrial,” includes all of Noble’s industrial lithographs spanning his entire career, from Wrecking Scow, The Diver, which he created in 1946, through Tides of 100 Years, which he created in 1977 near the end of his life.

The exhibition also includes the rarely displayed Pipe Lithographs, a series of twelve lithographs commissioned by the US Pipe and Foundry Company in 1952 to illustrate a promotional calendar.

Also on display is the 1951 lithograph Bayonne Arabian Nights, which prominently features the former Houdry power plant in Bayonne, New Jersey, which was originally built and operated by the Tidewater Oil Company and later purchased by J. Paul Getty (1892-1976).

Noble wrote in 1976, “Here is a picture of Getty making his fortune—it shows the Houdry plant in Bayonne—the world’s largest oil refinery at the time. I also did a picture of it in the process of being built and another showing its destruction. In a way I was Getty’s poet laureate, but this is a secret carefully kept.”

Those other pictures that Noble mentioned are the paintings The Building of Tidewater (c. 1937), Candles of the Kill (c. 1953), and Death of Houdry (c. 1960), all of which are also on display. Candles of the Kill was loaned to the Noble Maritime Collection expressly for the Noble Industrial exhibition by the artist’s sons, John and Allan Noble, who are enthusiastic about the exhibition’s concept.

“It is stunning. I think it’s one of his best paintings by far,” Allan Noble said about Candles of the Kill. “We hope everyone enjoys it!”

“Noble Industrial” was made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and by a grant from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.

The Noble Maritime Collection, located in Building D, a former mariners’ dormitory at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, New York, is open from 12 until 5 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays. Admission is by donation.

For more information, call (718) 447-6490 or visit noblemaritime.org.