John Currin - WikiHQ

John Currin (born 1962) is an American painter based in New York City. He is most recognised for his technically proficient satirical figurative paintings that explore controversial sexual and societal topics. His work shows a wide range of influences, including sources as diverse as the Renaissance, popular culture magazines, and contemporary fashion models. He often distorts or exaggerates the erotic forms of the female body, and has stressed that his characters are reflections of himself rather than inspired by real people.

Early life

Currin was born in Boulder, Colorado, and grew up in Connecticut, the son of a physics professor and a piano teacher from Oklahoma. In Connecticut as a teenager he studied painting privately with a renowned and traditionally trained artist from Odesa, Ukraine, Lev Meshberg. He went to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he obtained a BFA in 1984, and received a MFA from Yale University in 1986.

Career

At White Columns in New York City in 1989 he exhibited a series of portraits of young girls derived from the photographs in a high school yearbook, and initiated his efforts to distill art from traditionally clichéd subjects. In the 1990s, when political themed art works were favored, Currin brazenly used bold depictions of busty young women, mustachioed men and asexual divorcés, setting him apart from the rest. He used magazines like Cosmopolitan along with old issues of Playboy for inspiration for his paintings. In 1992 Currin moved to the Andrea Rosen Gallery, focusing, less sympathetically, on well-to-do middle-aged women. More recently, he has undertaken a series of figure paintings dealing with unabashedly pornographic themes, saying "One motive of mine is to see if I could make this clearly debased and unbeautiful thing become beautiful in a painting". and the Tate Gallery. Currin's Whitney retrospective of 2004 showcased the development of his career through over 40 of his displayed paintings. They have two sons and a daughter. In 2002 Feinstein and Currin published a 24-page book of their works at the Hydra Workshop in Hydra, Greece which they titled The Honeymooners, John Currin and Rachel Feinstein. It includes an interview conducted by Sadie Coles. In 2011 the New York Times described them as "the ruling power couple in today’s art world. He has scrutinised and emulated 16th century Northern European paintings. His inspirations come from Old Master portraits and pin-ups, nymphs, and ethereal feminine prototypes, as well as his muse and wife, Feinstein. His paintings hold conversation between the grotesque and the beautiful, and range inspiration from classical artists such as Fragonard and Bouchard to Rockwell and Crumb

Art market

The artist's most expensive works sold at auction:

$12,007,500 – Nice 'n Easy, 1999. Christie's, Nov 15, 2016.
$4,645,000 – Miss Fenwick, 1996. Sotheby's, May 14, 2014.
$3,615,000 – Tolbrook, 2006. Sotheby's, May 16, 2019.
$3,525,000 – The Collaborator, 2010. Christie's, May 11, 2015.
$3,525,000 – Amanda, 2003. Phillips, Nov 11, 2013.

Source materials

Currin has cited Danish pornography "pulled... off the Internet" as source material for his work. Specific images published by Color Climax Corporation have been identified as sources for Currin's more pornographic paintings, including compositions and small details.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibits

2022 New Paintings, Sadie Cole HQ, Bury Street, London, England
2021 Memorial, Gagosian, 24th Street, New York NY, USA
2019 John Currin: My Life as a Man, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX
2013 Gagosian Gallery, Paris, France
2012 Sadie Coles HQ, London, England
2011 DHC/Art, Montréal, Canada
2010 John Currin: New Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, Madison Avenue, New York, NY
2009 John Currin: Works on Paper, A Fifteen Year Survey of Women, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2008 John Currin: New Paintings, Sadie Coles HQ, London, England
2006 Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Sadie Coles HQ, London, England Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Traveled to: Serpentine Gallery, London, England; Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY John Currin: Works on Paper, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA Traveled to: Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
2002 Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2001 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Monika Sprüth Galerie, Cologne, Germany Sadie Coles HQ, London, England
1999 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
1997 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY Sadie Coles HQ, London, England
1996 Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
1995 Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain, Limousin, Limoges, France Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, WA Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1994 Galerie Jennifer Flay, San Francisco, CA Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
1993 Critical Distance, curated by Luk Lambrecht, Ado Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium Galerie Monika Sprüth, Cologne, Germany
1992 Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
1989 White Columns, New York, NY