John Currin – New Paintings
December 9, 2010 11:47 am Leave your thoughts
Today I had the pleasure of going to see the John Currin showing of recent works at the Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue. Currin is one of my very favorite painters along with Lisa Yuskavage. The show was great! Currin can freaking paint! I feel he is easily one of the greatest living painters. Even at times when he is criticized (and those times are few) critics always admit he has great skill.
I marveled at his new works. I spent a long time studying these paintings. What stood out most to me was Currins ability to paint everything well. Shoes, tile floor, fur, drapery, glass, and of course figures & portraits all executed with the absolute finest
of touches.
Each stroke of his brush seemingly exudes absolute confidence in the result it will bring. Currin continues his subtle playfulness in his current work with many tongue in cheek expressions on the faces of the people in the paintings. His current palette when painting people is very pale, fleshy, somewhat Rubenesque. Of course the show included a couple of Currins more sexually themed paintings. Not necessarily my taste in painting but they are incredibly well executed.
I highly recommend the show to anyone who can make it out to see it.
John Currin is truly a contemporary master.