![]() There was no point in forcing the kinds of elongations and distortions he often favors in rendering the figure onto soup tureens, teapots, and gravy boats. What gives the work its charge, I suspect, is that these were objects the artist needed to observe and capture in his own way. In contrast to his flaccid three-ways, the painting enjoys all the qualities you’d expect from a depiction of sexual frenzy: rippling, glistening surfaces awkward abutments, and evidence of the painter’s greedy, fascinated observation. “Heritage Hall” (2003–06), a canvas of more than 3 by 4 feet, offers a crowded arrangement of china and glassware on a neutral brown ground. Currin’s new work, there is a similarly prescriptive sense that it is time for erotics - that it was the way for his mannerist figuration to go. The liberal attitudes of sometime Calvinist countries toward sexuality has a kind of cool, sex-is-good-for-you efficiency, in which naughtiness is sanitized. It is hard not to draw a connection between the stereotypical Nordic attitude toward sex and Mr. They are relatively small pictures with a sketchy brushiness that signals urgency and fumble, but such sexiness is delivered in quotation marks, and does not offer actual painterly excitement. There are several scenes of group sex, coyly titled after Northern European cities: “Rotterdam,” “Copenhagen,” “Malmo.” These seem drawn from vintage 1970s porn, judging by the hairdos and ABBA-esque expressions of climax. This is his first show with his new (since 2004) dealer, Gagosian, and while it doesn’t have the narrative thrust of some of his earlier shows at Andrea Rosen, it is as forcefully themed as his blue period. In terms of pictorial energy, his orgies are inert, while his still lifes are animate. But rare and felicitious glimpses into genuine painterly lust for life emerge in his rendering - of all subjects - of crockery. His hard-core images are delivered with a ho-hum perfunctoriness that often enervates his surfaces. But, instructively, you don’t find both in the same places. There is more explicit erotic action on view than in any images hitherto by this avid courter of controversy, and there is sexy paintwork to boot. John Currin’s new show draws a sharp distinction between sex and sexiness. John Currin, Heritage Hall 2003-06 oil on canvas, 38 x 50 inches Courtesy Gagosian Gallery 980 Madison Ave., between 76th and 77th streets, 21
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