LidoNob

This large drawing presents a view of the swimming pool in the fictitious town of Nobson Newtown and is the first major work by Noble acquired by Tate. Noble has referred to Nobson as ‘an exercise in portraiture via town planning’ and it is the project he is perhaps best known for. The minutely observed detail and comic book style of the Nobson drawings leads to comparisons with obsessive adolescent doodles. However, the town’s mottoes, ‘No style only technique’ and ‘No accidents only mistakes’, suggest a somewhat caustic take on the practice of town planning as well as a critical attitude towards art making itself.