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John Currin

November 26, 2019–February 29, 2020
Hong Kong

Installation view Artwork © John Currin

Installation view

Artwork © John Currin

Installation view Artwork © John Currin

Installation view

Artwork © John Currin

Installation view Artwork © John Currin

Installation view

Artwork © John Currin

Installation view Artwork © John Currin

Installation view

Artwork © John Currin

Installation view Artwork © John Currin

Installation view

Artwork © John Currin

Installation view Artwork © John Currin

Installation view

Artwork © John Currin

Works Exhibited

John Currin, Rosalba, 2019 Oil on canvas, 22 × 18 inches (55.9 × 45.7 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Rosalba, 2019

Oil on canvas, 22 × 18 inches (55.9 × 45.7 cm)
© John Currin

John Currin, Daphna, 2019 Oil on canvas, 30 × 22 inches (76.2 × 55.9 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Daphna, 2019

Oil on canvas, 30 × 22 inches (76.2 × 55.9 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Little Magdalene, 2019 Oil on canvas, 23 × 18 inches (58.4 × 45.7 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Little Magdalene, 2019

Oil on canvas, 23 × 18 inches (58.4 × 45.7 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Avarice, 2019 Oil on canvas, 40 ⅛ × 30 ⅛ inches (101.9 × 76.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Avarice, 2019

Oil on canvas, 40 ⅛ × 30 ⅛ inches (101.9 × 76.4 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, Shelley, 2019

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

John Currin, Magus, 2019 Oil on canvas, 22 × 18 inches (55.9 × 45.7 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Magus, 2019

Oil on canvas, 22 × 18 inches (55.9 × 45.7 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Ballade, 2019 Oil on canvas, 23 × 18 inches (58.4 × 45.7 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Ballade, 2019

Oil on canvas, 23 × 18 inches (58.4 × 45.7 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, St. Glenda, 2019 Oil on canvas, 21 ½ × 18 inches (54.6 × 45.6 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, St. Glenda, 2019

Oil on canvas, 21 ½ × 18 inches (54.6 × 45.6 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Desdemona, 2019 Oil on canvas, 21 ½ × 18 inches (54.6 × 45.7 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Desdemona, 2019

Oil on canvas, 21 ½ × 18 inches (54.6 × 45.7 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Philosopher, 2019 Oil on canvas, 36 × 28 ⅛ inches (91.4 × 71.4 cm)© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

John Currin, Philosopher, 2019

Oil on canvas, 36 × 28 ⅛ inches (91.4 × 71.4 cm)
© John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

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

John Currin, Squeaky, 2019

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

John Currin, Happy Magdalene, 2018  Oil on canvas, 40 × 30 inches (101.6 × 76.2 cm)© John Currin

John Currin, Happy Magdalene, 2018

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

About

There’s a kind of a distortion that happens with adoration.
—John Currin

Gagosian is pleased to present new portraits by John Currin. This is his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong and his first exhibition in Asia.

Conflating inspirative sources of high and low culture, from old masters to soft-porn pinups, Currin channels his prodigious painterly skills into idealized yet perverse images that both charm and challenge.

As a graduate student at Yale University in the 1980s, Currin recognized a “forced masculinity” in the Abstract Expressionist mode of painting that he had been practicing; consequently, he began exploring themes of innocence, humor, and eroticism, creating highly mannerist images of horses and girls with feathered hair, large-headed caricatures, and portraits of individuals and couples made in a painterly language entirely his own. Currin’s detailed renderings of human flesh in sensuous, glowing brushwork has frequently prompted comparison to the Dutch masters, including the celebrated Golden Age painter Cornelis van Haarlem, alongside whose paintings Currin’s were exhibited at the Frans Hals Museum in the Netherlands in 2011.

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有一種扭曲以令人喜愛的方式發生。
— 約翰.柯林(John Currin)

高古軒欣然展出約翰.柯林的最新肖像作品,這是柯林在香港的首場個人展覽,也是他在亞洲首次展出作品。

柯林揉合高雅與低俗文化、古典大師作品以至性感美女照片等靈感來源,運用驚爲天人的繪畫技巧描繪看似完美理想化卻又不合常理的畫面,既迷人又令人質疑。

1980年代畢業於耶魯大學的柯林發現過往採用的抽象表現主義繪畫模式有一種「強迫的男性特質」,於是開始探索純真、幽默和色情的主題,繪畫出極具矯飾主義味道的馬匹、頭髮層次豐富的女孩、大頭的漫畫人物,以及以其獨特繪畫語言描繪的單人或雙人肖象畫。他以撩人而熱情的筆觸,細緻描繪人體,因而經常被人與荷蘭大師的作品比較,包括黃金時代的著名畫家科內利·凡·哈勒姆(Cornelis van Haarlem),而柯林的畫作亦曾於2011年在荷蘭弗蘭斯哈爾斯博物館與哈勒姆的作品一同展出。

柯林目前正於美國達拉斯當代藝術中心舉行展覽,展出貫穿其創作生涯的描繪男性和男性特質的作品。展覽名為「我作爲男人的一生」,與菲利普.羅斯(Philip Roth)所著的諷刺自白小說同名,書中主要描述男性單相思的煩憂。展覽展出一批尷尬而害羞的人物和怪異的藝術創作,在本我與自我的拉鋸中同時揉合美與怪誕。

在柯林的新肖像畫作中,他回歸自己最喜愛的主題:女性。畫作展現他經常採用的主題,也深入探索女性肖像畫的體裁。以特徵而言,這些女性看似半真、半虛構,彷彿畫中人只有一部分置於扭曲的鏡子前,其餘部分則正常無礙。

在其中一幅畫中,一名女性身穿古典服飾,在全灰色的背景前擺姿勢,一隻纖細的手保護著自己裸露的胸脯,其態度與臉上的興奮神色相違。在另一幅畫中,一名頭繫絲質髮帶的女子身處黃色的背景前,笑容僵硬,表情空洞,身穿一件印花上衣,胸部滑稽地下垂至畫面的邊緣,使畫作產生懷舊的甜蜜與徹底抽離的效果。

在另一幅作品中,一名與柯林妻子(藝術家瑞秋·芬因斯坦(Rachel Feinstein),她是柯林作品中的時常出現人物和模特兒)頗為相似的女子傾斜著頭,猶如古典肖像畫,秀髮浪漫地披在裸露的肩膀上。她散發著純粹幸福愛意的表情似乎是面向畫外的世界,而非畫家本人,因而展現一種仁慈而非激情的感覺。雖然柯林的作品帶有諷刺意味,但他對人物的深厚感情和喜愛顯然而見,動人的筆觸同時帶有嘲諷與真誠的氣息。

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John Currin, Shelley, 2019 © John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever

Tour

John Currin

Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 6pm
Gagosian, Hong Kong

In the interest of public health, this event has been canceled.

Join Gagosian for a tour of John Currin’s first solo exhibition in Asia, currently on view at Gagosian, Hong Kong. The exhibition presents a new series of portraits by Currin featuring his most beloved subject: women. Gagosian director Nick Simunovic will examine the genre of female portraiture in Currin’s oeuvre and explore how the artist channels his prodigious painterly skills into idealized yet perverse images that both charm and challenge. To attend the free event, RSVP to hktours@gagosian.com. Space is limited.

John Currin, Shelley, 2019 © John Currin. Photo: Rob McKeever