Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep
Guy Budziak is a woodcut artist whose striking high-contrast prints evoke dense and haunting images from classic noir, proto-noir and neo-noir films. My recent Nightmare Alley blog entry featured Guy's rendering of atantalizing moment from the film:
Tyrone Power, Ian Keith and Joan Blondell in Nightmare Alley
Guy studied painting and earned his BFA at Wayne State University in Detroit, his interest in printmaking confined to a class or two he’d taken along the way. After moving into a downtown Detroit neighborhood, Guy began checking out film noir rentals from a nearby public library with a sizable movie catalog. His dedication to painting would wane, but his passion for film noir would lead to his move into woodcut printmaking; a friend urged him to create art inspired by his love of noir. His first piece, completed in 1999, was an image from Out of the Past. A few years later Roger Ebert, a great fan of the film, would buy (note: see Guy's comment below) a print.
Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in Out of the Past
In 2008, Guy’s image of Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 neo-noir Le Samourai appeared on the cover of Ginette Vincendeau’s book, Les Stars et le Star-Systeme en France (The Stars and the Star-System in France), published by L'Harmattan.
In 2012, Giuseppina Magazine, a lavish art, entertainment and fashion quarterly ($48 per issue) published a six page spread spotlighting Guy’s work. In the interview that accompanied his images, Guy was asked what he found most intriguing about film noir
“…I think above all else it is mood, mood and atmosphere perhaps more than anything. Night and fog, and rain, of course. While I can appreciate those films inhabited by gumshoes garbed in trench coats and fedoras and femme fatales in slinky gowns, these components aren’t mandatory for me. What many don’t realize is that the real stars of noir aren’t necessarily writers, actors or directors, but rather cinematographers, directors of photography, those responsible for the overall LOOK of these films.”
Giuseppina Magazine #11
From now through April 21, Guy’s prints are for sale at significantly reduced prices. I’ll soon be framing and hanging the print of Nightmare Alley I just purchased and Iencourage those interested to click here to go to his website and view an entire gallery of his incredible art. Guy can be contacted through his site for information on how to purchase prints
Robert Ryan in On Dangerous Ground