Eric Fischl was asked, during the Q&A period after his VCU lecture yesterday, if he had seen John Currin's most recent show at Gagosian -
"the angriest, most hostile show I'd ever seen"
"I was struck by the misanthropic animus that was being projected"
"the caricturish _____, .. parody of it, the way he used objects to humiliate his subjects..."
"some fabulous strategies... he would paint an old woman's face on a younger woman's body, for example"
BEEF!
RELATED: Photographer Alec Soth also saw it... but says that "not only is he an outrageously talented painter, there is genuine affection in the work."
hi martin, i haven't seen the currin yet but those comments are enticing me to see....
ReplyDeletei wanted to comment on your review for the bizarro guggenheim and how excellent it was to read. the whole project i mucho enjoy. if only i could molecularly travel into richmond to see in the real.
As the person who asked the Currin question I am happy you noted specifically what he said since I was halfway out the door when they opened the floor for Q&A.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't know what to think of Currin's show. He's a better painter than ever and it seems he wants to be sure people will come and see the show and say more than hey, he's a better painter than ever. The work is sensational like Fiscl's once was which is why I asked the question.
I felt no affection from Currin for the subjects of these paintings. I felt like he was taking on Courbet's famous "Source" painting at the Musee D'Orsay most of all. It was the additional pornographic scenes of threesomes that I thought were just over the top for the sake of controversy.
If you are interested in Currin you'd better see the show since you won't see much of the work anywhere else. It won't be posted on the net and it won't be published in a lot of magazines. The catalogue was $150. so it'll be on my Christmas list!
I was wrong. Gagosian has one of the juciest paintings posted right on their website. Evidence of Free Speech! Amazing.
ReplyDeleteI like to much the works of Mr Currin, another artists who have a greatest technich are Dino Valls, Maquiamelo, and Luigi Stornaiolo.
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog,
ReplyDeleteSome fabulous strategies of art are the way that use John Currin, also greay masters like Maquiamelo who makes a controversy in Colombia o the Sapnish Dino Valls who is another with ambiguous message.
Regards
James