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John Currin

John Currin, Bea Arthur Naked, 1991 Oil on canvas, 38 × 32 inches (96.5 × 81.3 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Bea Arthur Naked, 1991

Oil on canvas, 38 × 32 inches (96.5 × 81.3 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, The Neverending Story, 1994 Oil on canvas, 38 × 30 inches (96.5 × 76.2 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, The Neverending Story, 1994

Oil on canvas, 38 × 30 inches (96.5 × 76.2 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, The Kennedys, 1996 Oil on canvas, 36 × 32 inches (91.4 × 81.3 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, The Kennedys, 1996

Oil on canvas, 36 × 32 inches (91.4 × 81.3 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Nude with Raised Arms, 1998 Oil on canvas, 46 × 34 inches (116.8 × 86.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Fred Scruton

John Currin, Nude with Raised Arms, 1998

Oil on canvas, 46 × 34 inches (116.8 × 86.4 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Fred Scruton

John Currin, Stamford After-Brunch, 2000 Oil on canvas, 40 × 60 inches (101.6 × 152.4 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Stamford After-Brunch, 2000

Oil on canvas, 40 × 60 inches (101.6 × 152.4 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, The Clairvoyant, 2001 Oil on canvas, 22 × 16 inches (55.9 × 40.6 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, The Clairvoyant, 2001

Oil on canvas, 22 × 16 inches (55.9 × 40.6 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, The Lobster, 2001 Oil on canvas, 40 × 32 inches (101.6 × 81.3 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, The Lobster, 2001

Oil on canvas, 40 × 32 inches (101.6 × 81.3 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Fishermen, 2002 Oil on canvas, 50 × 41 inches (127 × 104.1 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Fishermen, 2002

Oil on canvas, 50 × 41 inches (127 × 104.1 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Thanksgiving, 2003 Oil on canvas, 68 × 52 inches (172.7 × 132.1 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Thanksgiving, 2003

Oil on canvas, 68 × 52 inches (172.7 × 132.1 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Heritage Hall, 2003–06 Oil on canvas, 38 × 50 inches (96.5 × 127 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Heritage Hall, 2003–06

Oil on canvas, 38 × 50 inches (96.5 × 127 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Sno-bo, 2006 Etching with aquatint on handmade Kochi NB paper, 18 × 14 ½ inches (45.7 × 36.8 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Sno-bo, 2006

Etching with aquatint on handmade Kochi NB paper, 18 × 14 ½ inches (45.7 × 36.8 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Rippowam, 2006 Oil on canvas, 40 × 47 inches (101.6 × 119.4 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Rippowam, 2006

Oil on canvas, 40 × 47 inches (101.6 × 119.4 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, The Old Fur, 2010 Oil on canvas, 50 × 38 inches (127 × 96.5 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, The Old Fur, 2010

Oil on canvas, 50 × 38 inches (127 × 96.5 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Flora Currin, 2011 Oil on canvas, 24 × 18 inches (61 × 45.7 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Flora Currin, 2011

Oil on canvas, 24 × 18 inches (61 × 45.7 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Tapestry, 2013 Oil on canvas, 46 ⅛ × 34 inches (117.2 × 86.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Tapestry, 2013

Oil on canvas, 46 ⅛ × 34 inches (117.2 × 86.4 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Untitled, 2013 Charcoal and chalk on paper, 17 ⅞ × 13 ⅞ inches (45.4 × 35.2 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Untitled, 2013

Charcoal and chalk on paper, 17 ⅞ × 13 ⅞ inches (45.4 × 35.2 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, A Fool with Two Young Women, 2013 Oil on canvas, 19 ⅞ × 24 inches (50.5 × 61 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, A Fool with Two Young Women, 2013

Oil on canvas, 19 ⅞ × 24 inches (50.5 × 61 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Maenads, 2015 Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

John Currin, Maenads, 2015

Oil on canvas, 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio

John Currin, Untitled, 2017 Oil on canvas, 40 × 30 inches (101.6 × 76.2 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Untitled, 2017

Oil on canvas, 40 × 30 inches (101.6 × 76.2 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Shelley, 2019 Oil on canvas, 23 × 18 ⅛ inches (58.4 × 46 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Shelley, 2019

Oil on canvas, 23 × 18 ⅛ inches (58.4 × 46 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Pinup, 2021 Oil on canvas, 54 × 36 inches (137.2 × 91.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Pinup, 2021

Oil on canvas, 54 × 36 inches (137.2 × 91.4 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Esmeralda, 2023 Charcoal and chalk on prepared paper, 22 ½ × 16 ¼ inches (57.2 × 41.3 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

John Currin, Esmeralda, 2023

Charcoal and chalk on prepared paper, 22 ½ × 16 ¼ inches (57.2 × 41.3 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

John Currin, Catalog, 2023 Oil on canvas, 62 ⅛ × 52 ⅛ inches (157.8 × 132.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Catalog, 2023

Oil on canvas, 62 ⅛ × 52 ⅛ inches (157.8 × 132.4 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

About

The one thing I can do is make a fairly convincing fantasy of happiness. It doesn’t mean that I’m happy or the painting isn’t creepy, but good melancholy comes from a thwarted joy, which is another way to describe parenthood, or marriage, or being alive.
—John Currin

John Currin uses classical painterly techniques to portray highly charged social and sexual taboos. With inspirations as diverse as Old Master portraits, pinups, pornography, and B movies, he paints ideational, challengingly perverse images of women, from lusty nymphs to dour matrons. Consistent throughout his work is the search for the point at which the beautiful and the grotesque are held in perfect balance.

As an undergraduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in the early 1980s, Currin painted abstract works in the style of Willem de Kooning, seeking to evoke the nude through visceral, expressive brushstrokes. By the time he went on to pursue his MFA at Yale University, he saw a “forced masculinity” in these early works and realized that they were an “attempt to be a tortured artist.” Reacting against this, he began to explore themes of innocence, humor, and sexuality—creating images of stylized horses, girls with feathered hair, large-headed caricatures, and realistic portraits of individuals and couples. In the early 2000s he went on to produce a series of paintings that combine hard-core pornography with traditional still-life elements, depicting explicit sex acts taking place in decorative interiors.

In 2011–12 Currin’s paintings were shown alongside masterpieces by the Dutch Golden Age painter Cornelis van Haarlem at the Frans Hals Museum in the Netherlands, revealing the historical links between the artists’ treatment of flesh, surface texture, light, and shadow. In the early 2010s Currin worked primarily on depictions of lone female nudes—rather than couples or threesomes—both in lounging, evocative poses and in classical portrait compositions. His wife, the artist Rachel Feinstein, served as Currin’s model for many of these works. Her distinctive classical features continue to make their way into his more recent paintings, in which he subtly distorts the face and body through mannerist elongations and other anatomical exaggerations.

Recently Currin has made the pornographic content of his paintings less explicit, relegating glimpses of sex scenes to the background, or implying eroticism through food or other symbols. While some paintings show blank smiling faces reminiscent of those in department store catalogues, others feature elderly couples seemingly unaware of the random objects perched on their heads. The lighthearted thinking and compositional planning behind these works was revealed in 2017 when Gagosian presented Currin’s drawings at Frieze New York. The career-spanning selection of works exposed the complex networks of historical and pop cultural references, as well as the simple jokes, that come together seamlessly in the artist’s expertly rendered paintings.

Art&Newport

Art&Newport

Writers and curators Dodie Kazanjian and Alison Gingeras spoke with the Quarterly’s Alison McDonald about the arts organization Art&Newport and the possibilities the historic Rhode Island town offers contemporary artists. Their current exhibition, Games, Gamblers & Cartomancers: The New Cardsharps, on view through October 1, 2023, examines the varied custom of card play and includes artists such as John Currin, Hadi Falapishi, and Katie Stout.

John Currin, Memorial, 2020 (detail), oil on canvas, 62 × 40 inches (157.5 × 101.6 cm)

John Currin: Monuments to Lust

Natasha Stagg reports on a trip to John Currin’s New York studio.

Damien Hirst's Reclining Woman on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Fall 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Damien Hirst’s Reclining Woman (2011) on its cover.

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez in their New York studio, 2019.

Fashion and Art: Proenza Schouler

Derek Blasberg speaks with Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the designers behind the New York fashion brand Proenza Schouler, about their influences and collaborations, from Mark Rothko to Harmony Korine.

The cover of the Spring 2020 edition of the Gagosian Quarterly magazine. A Cindy Sherman photograph of herself dressed as a clown against a rainbow background.

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #412 (2003) on its cover.

John Currin, The Shaving Man, 1993.

Mansplaining: Figuring Masculinity in the Age of #MeToo

In light of recent developments around the definition of masculinity in American culture, Alison M. Gingeras, the curator of John Currin: My Life as a Man at Dallas Contemporary, looks closely at the artist’s depictions of male subjects.

The cover of the Fall 2019 Gagosian Quarterly magazine. Artwork by Nathaniel Mary Quinn

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2019

The Fall 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring a detail from Sinking (2019) by Nathaniel Mary Quinn on its cover.

Drawing is a First Date

Drawing is a First Date

John Currin speaks with Brett Littman about drawing.

John Currin: On Drawing

John Currin: On Drawing

John Currin on the relationship between his drawing and painting practices.

John Currin

In Conversation
John Currin

The artist speaks with Derek Blasberg on Los Angeles, Kippenberger, and his newest body of work.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

John Currin. Photo: Roe Ethridge

Lecture

ArtCenter Spring 2024 Graduate Seminar Lecture Series
John Currin

Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 7:15pm
Los Angeles Times Media Center, Pasadena, California
www.artcentermfa.net

John Currin will be a guest lecturer at the Los Angeles Times Media Center, as part of the ArtCenter College of Design Graduate Art MFA Spring 2024 Lecture Series. Artist Logan Criley will introduce Currin, who will discuss Memorial, his 2021 exhibition at Gagosian, New York, as well as his practice in general. The talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the artist. The event is free and open to the public.

John Currin. Photo: Roe Ethridge

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel 2023. Artwork, left to right: © John Currin; © Rudolf Stingel; © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Jonas Wood; © Anna Weyant; © Jenny Saville; © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

Art Basel 2023

June 13–18, 2022, Hall 2, booth B15
Messe Basel
artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel 2023 with modern and contemporary works by gallery artists, as well as special entries in the Unlimited and Parcours sections of the fair.

Gagosian’s presentation in the main section of Art Basel represents the breadth and diversity of the gallery’s programming through work by artists including John Currin, Andreas Gursky, Simon Hantaï, Tetsuya Ishida, Jia Aili, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Rick Lowe, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Sarah Sze, Mary Weatherford, Anna Weyant, Rachel Whiteread, Stanley Whitney, and Jordan Wolfson, among others. Also featured are iconic works by Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel 2023. Artwork, left to right: © John Currin; © Rudolf Stingel; © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Jonas Wood; © Anna Weyant; © Jenny Saville; © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Jadé Fadojutimi, As usual, the season’s showers tend to linger, 2023 © Jadé Fadojutimi

Art Fair

Art Basel Hong Kong 2023

March 22–25, 2023
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 with a presentation of modern and contemporary works by international artists.

Jadé Fadojutimi, As usual, the season’s showers tend to linger, 2023 © Jadé Fadojutimi

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Museum Exhibitions

Glenn Brown, The Holy Bible, 2022 © Glenn Brown

On View

Dix und die Gegenwart

Through April 1, 2024
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany
www.deichtorhallen.de

This exhibition, whose title translates to Dix and the Present, explores the work of Otto Dix (1891–1969) and the artist’s enduring influence. It focuses on the ostensibly apolitical work Dix created beginning in 1933, which was less aggressive than his radical and provocative paintings of the 1920s. His Nazi-era landscapes, commissioned portraits, and Christian allegories were instead subtle and subversive forms of contemporary social critique. The exhibition aims to reveal the shifting cultural and social parameters in the reception of Dix’s art, while also demonstrating how his oeuvre continues to fascinate more than forty contemporary artists. Work by Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, John Currin, Nan Goldin, and Anselm Kiefer is included.

Glenn Brown, The Holy Bible, 2022 © Glenn Brown

Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993, Tate Modern, London © Jeff Wall

On View

Capturing the Moment

Through April 28, 2024
Tate Modern, London
www.tate.org.uk

Capturing the Moment explores the relationship between photography and painting through iconic artworks from the modern era. The exhibition examines how the two distinct mediums have shaped each other and how artists have blurred the boundaries to capture moments in time. Work by Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, John Currin, Andreas Gursky, Pablo Picasso, Jeff Wall, and Andy Warhol is included.

Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993, Tate Modern, London © Jeff Wall

Installation view, Friends & Lovers, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, October 6, 2023–January 20, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Paul Mpagi Sepuya, © Anna Weyant, © Alessandro Teoldi, © Sung Jik Yang. Photo: Steven Probert

Closed

Friends & Lovers

October 6, 2023–January 20, 2024
FLAG Art Foundation, New York
www.flagartfoundation.org

Friends & Lovers is an expansive group exhibition that centers on the relationships between fifty artists and their subjects and explores the infinite ways in which we are influenced by our inner circles. Just as a studio visit opens a window onto an artist’s creative process, whom the artists choose to immortalize through their work—be that a lover, partner, family member, friend, celebrity crush, or a fleeting encounter—provides a similarly fascinating insight into their practice. Work by John Currin, Nan Goldin, Rudolf Stingel, and Anna Weyant is included.

Installation view, Friends & Lovers, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, October 6, 2023–January 20, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Paul Mpagi Sepuya, © Anna Weyant, © Alessandro Teoldi, © Sung Jik Yang. Photo: Steven Probert

John Currin, Sunflower, 2021 © John Currin

Closed

John Currin in
Pictus Porrectus: Reconsidering the Full Length Portrait

July 1–October 2, 2022
Isaac Bell House, Newport, Rhode Island
www.artandnewport.org

After more than a century of falling out of fashion, the full-length, life-size portrait—which originally served as an ostentatious display of power and wealth that reinforced aristocratic and ecclesiastical hierarchies—has undergone a radical paradigm shift in recent decades. Contemporary artists have breathed new life into this old-fashioned genre by reinvigorating it with new subjects outside of passé Anglo-European power structures. This exhibition of full-length portraiture, curated by Alison Gingeras and Dodie Kazanjian, is a collaboration between Art & Newport and the Preservation Society of Newport County. Work by John Currin is included.

John Currin, Sunflower, 2021 © John Currin

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Press

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