Purple Art
[October 19 2021]
“Memorial,” an exhibition by John Currin at Gagosian, New York
Sophisticated in technique and perverse in subject matter, Currin’s portraits conflate high and low culture. In a teasing blend of satire and homage, they combine the beautiful and the grotesque, the sacred and the profane. Currin brings dynamic, historicized figures into contact with a distinctly modern view of sexuality and the human body. He further complicates his graphic subject matter by giving many of the central figures the facial features of his wife, the artist Rachel Feinstein, a perpetual muse throughout his career. Through this visual invocation of his most enduring subject and model, Currin’s paintings prompt a complex entanglement of personal, societal, and historical narratives.
On view until October 30th at Gagosian New York
541 West 24th Street, New York
Photos by Paige Silveria
