11/5/2023 0 Comments John currin portraits![]() Three paintings, Fisherman (2002), which portrays the muscled backs of the artist and his former studio mate, Sean Landers The Kennedys (1996), which is made with a palette knife and has two images of John F. ‘Pictures of male serenity’Īside from Currin’s portraits of his own children (Francis and Hollis), which are tender and straightforward and help set up what Currin calls his “parade of men” from childhood to old age, the sweetest portrayal of masculinity comes when Currin paints two men together. In The Dream of the Doctor (1997), the image of a doctor leaning into a screen with a bra hanging from it is terrifying for what it implies but also is male sexuality at a remove - one can imagine that doctor is wearing gloves and not quite able to fully grasp what he desires. There is a pictorial frustration that gives the pictures an awkward and stilted presence. Yet, the man in both cases isn’t quite connecting with his desire. This disconnect continues in paintings such as The Wizard (1994) and Office Workers (2002), both of which depict graphic male sexuality. Currin is depicting the disconnect that these men have between their projected self-image and whom they really are. ![]() In the mirror, he appears as a rugged and cool Sean Connery type however, his visage in real life is frailer and less elegant. They desperately cling to a world where their very existence was powerful, yet because of age or anxiety, the virility of the subjects is fading. Deflated menĬurrin’s men are mostly deflated, sad, pathetic, lost and otherwise unwholesome creatures. “The subject of men is a recurring shingles outbreak in my work,” Currin says. It is as if thinking of men, which of course for Currin means considering himself, is painful. Only a couple of the more than 100 images of men that Currin has created are from direct observation. Currin prefers to take his men from stock photographs or advertisements sometimes he starts off by painting the face of a woman and then painting a male face on top of it. However, perhaps it is not surprising that Currin’s best work, in a show about men, is one in which he paints women. This work is Currin’s most direct, surprising and powerful feminist gesture. It would be highly believable that a queer, millennial woman painted this series last year. The fact that Currin created this work at the same time he was painting contorted women adds an additional layer to our understanding of him as an artist.
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