Noding Of by Leon Aarts (sold)

Final Verdict: ★★★★½ (4.5/5)

A tender, typographic triumph—"Nodding Off" is Leon Aarts’ lullaby in pigment, his Davis meets Dali, turning the humble nap into a monumental fold. Less ferocious than Bull, less cosmic than Jetson, but warmer in its whisper—art as soft landing. For lovers of witty abstraction or quiet moments made visible, it’s a bedside essential; this isn’t a painting—it’s the shape of letting go.

"He built the letter tall, then let the body melt into its arms—N for nod, N for now, N for nevermind."

This acrylic painting, "Nodding Off" (2006) by Leon Aarts (b. 1961, Christchurch, New Zealand), is a dream-drenched, typographic reverie—a colossal “N” cradling a slumped, melting figure within its angular embrace, as if the letter itself has become a cradle of unconsciousness, collapsing into a Fauvist-Cubist lullaby of warm ochres, drowsy reds, and twilight greens. Executed during Aarts’ mid-2000s whimsical-abstract phase (the same year as Jetson’s retro-orbit and The Gendarme is Busy’s satirical sprawl), this horizontal mid-scale work (approx. 40×24 inches) transforms the act of dozing into a visual pun: N for nod, N for nap, N for the narrative of surrender. It’s a Whatdoesitmean intermezzo: What shape does surrender take when the mind folds into itself?