Exhibition
Harmony Korine
Wormburner
August 3–September 7, 2021
The Bridge, Bridgehampton, New York
I had been waylaid on a houseboat in Siesta Key eating nacho chili cheese dogs. I was listening to the Ferlin Husky song “On the Wings of a Dove.” It was raining, I had a BB gun in my lap, and I was stuck alone with one dusty volume of Encyclopedia Britannica that my parents had ordered from some Mormons in 1982. I opened it up to a picture of Richard Nixon playing golf. I realized that all the presidents play golf for some reason. It felt like a moment of pure revelation. The presidents will never stop golfing. Fore!
—Harmony Korine
This exhibition features new paintings by Harmony Korine depicting American presidents in the act of playing golf, a strangely quintessential presidential activity. Each painting is sourced from an archival photograph, which Korine repaints, either in black and white or full color, thereby transforming the original expressions and gestures into almost exaggerated versions of themselves. He then adds ribbons of color that dance across each composition with childlike irreverence, enhancing the paintings’ tragicomic impression while adding a tinge of absurdity.
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Harmony Korine, 37, 2019–21 © Harmony Korine
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Photo: Sarah Lee/eyevine/Redux
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Jerry Schatzberg
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www.metrograph.com
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