This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
feature john currin
work was positively reviewed in Juggs magazine (‘the magazine of
choice for breast men’). Naturally The Village Voice instructed art lovers
to boycott his shows, which of course achieved the exact opposite of
its intended effect. He wants to be noticed, the artworld’s dirty young
man; he’s talked in the past about how horny he used to get when nude
models were in the studio, so he took to painting in the nude himself, so
that he could use parts of his own body in the paintings.
Juggs and The Village Voice may represent the two poles
between which Currin’s work is most frequently slotted, but perhaps
in a world in which art (in terms of what it is and who’s ‘qualified’ to
be doing it in a professional manner) is really hard to pin down and
explain, his primary attraction is that he’s an old-fashioned painter,
whose saucy work suggests that he belongs to a Moulin Rouge-esque
artistic bohemia of absinthe (or perhaps in this case, spring break-style
kegs of beer), strange hallucinations and easy lays that everyone can
understand. Currin’s quite open about the fact that he was drawn to
figurative painting, and a conservative view of the artistic character, in
part as a means of distinguishing his work in the face of the competition.
Merging kitschy pop culture with high art, his paintings float somewhere
between the realms of George Condo and Lucas Cranach. He’s aware
of his market position, and he wants to make money (he’s got a family
to support). There’s nothing wrong with that.
He may not be embarrassed about the financial results of his
success, but he says he’s still embarrassed about painting sex. As if
it’s him rather than some model stripping off in front of us. Perhaps, commissioned a series of artworks around the theme of love, and its
though, it’s more embarrassing to be the person asking him to talk more or less suggestive allegories were testament to her power. She’d
about his work, while looking round at what amounts to a minor orgy have herself represented as Venus in various guises to advertise the
on the surrounding walls. It’s hard to focus on his face, but that’s what fact that she was a pathway to the king and the king’s pathway to more
you want to do. Except of course that one of the reasons for being in an earthly pleasures. And perhaps Currin’s new works advertise a similar
artist’s studio is to look at the work. In this case at the lapping and licking connection between high and low art. But while his paintings are all
tongues, the throbbing members, chubby thighs and pert breasts. So about overt display, they don’t really seem to be displaying anything
what’s with all this sex? much at all. Like the crockery set, culled from a mail-order catalogue,
“I had a whole routine reason, but that’s kind of faded away,” the which Currin has inserted into the corner of that painting of the three
artist says a little unhelpfully. “These are building on things I did the graces, they seem strangely empty.
year before last [when he had a solo show at Gagosian on Madison It’s one of the basic rules of advertising that sex sells. That’s
Avenue]. I didn’t think it would be all sex [the Gagosian show wasn’t], why the world has products like the Turkey Hooker – a forklike device
but it ended up that way. That’s where I had the most unfinished for taking your Thanksgiving meal out of the oven – which comes in
business from, as it turned out.” But getting to the heart of what, exactly, packaging decorated with a big-breasted cartoon turkey dressed up in
that ‘unfinished business’ might be turns out to be a process that’s as stockings and suspenders like a lady of the night (‘an easy pick-up from
slippery as one of Currin’s excited subject’s genitals. pan to platter’, runs the accompanying slogan). And when you grow up
As we discuss the work, his description of it fluctuates: they’re with advertising, you get the feeling that everything means something.
paintings; they’re porn. He seems to delight in switching between the But looking at Currin’s work can sometimes feel a bit like looking at
two. Maybe the porn aspect is something of a red herring. After all, porn a Mel Ramos without the products, the medium – paint drooled out
in an art gallery isn’t that shocking; it’s not even porn (in the sense that and licked across the surfaces – without the message. As Currin says,
in a gallery it becomes uncoupled from porn’s fundamental function they’re just about painting. Despite appearances, they’re art in its most
– to arouse sexual excitement – partly because viewers in art galleries basic form.
tend to look for any meanings beyond the obvious). Want proof? At
last year’s Art Basel Miami Beach you could witness a pair of silver-
haired collectors casually asking a gallerist whether (a Terence Koh
photograph of) a blowjob was ‘better’ than (a photograph of) rimming
WORKS
or (a photograph of) anal sex. They were talking about the monetary
(In ORdeR Of appeaRance)
value of the work, not the pleasure derived from the experience. You
John currin’s studio, with works in progress
get the feeling that Currin’s very conscious of this. He talks about the
Rachel in Fur, 2002, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
golden age of porn (during the mid-1970s, when they still let ugly or
normal-looking people ‘do it’) in much the same way as he discusses
Stepmother, 2007, oil on linen, 41 cm (circumference)
the golden age of painting (a John Currin show can look like a potted
All images
history of figurative painting in one easily digestible hit).
© the artist. courtesy Sadie coles HQ, London
In the studio there’s a sense of Madame de Pompadour’s
boudoir. During the mid-eighteenth century, Louis XV’s mistress
59 artreview
John Currin.indd 59 7/3/08 10:43:33
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com. Publish online for free with YUDU Freedom - www.yudufreedom.com.