All of these pictures are by John Currin. I never heard of him before I stumbled on his book in the library. It's a big book too! The guy is really prolific! I don't know what I think of this stuff. What do you think?
He likes to paint new faces on magazine photos. This looks like a redo of a "What kind of man reads Playboy?" ad. This is my favorite of the pictures on this page. 
28 comments:
Oehhh I never heard of him before either...I think I like it though! The new faces on magazine thing is funny and the butt is intriguing.
Currin's fantastic!! Damn fine painter with a playful & subversive sense of humour. I made a post on him here:
http://mattjonezanimation.blogspot.com/2005/11/john-currin.html
I like dat first paintin' thar...likes it a lot...
The public libraries of Southern Wisconsin have no books about John Currin. Waaa!
The last one I can hear the guy saying, "Stand back, Ladies. This is how you take a hook out of a fish." And I can hear the ladies thinking, "Oh, how strong he is, what a man." But, I'm not sure what the artist was trying to say.
The second painting reminds me of the looks I would get from my mother, the cold icy stare of (I'm going to kill you when we get home).
Glad I can always count on Uncle Eddie to introduce me to new stuff. Great post. I really should go to my local library and check out what they have. Haven't been inside it for years.
I reckon they are spooky apart from that last one which makes me forgive his creepy previous ones
Wow! I really like these. ...but I don't know why. Silent intensity? Dry humor? I don't know.
The last picture is funny! The guy in the pic looks like the late JFK Jr.
Do you know what I like about all these paintings? They look simple compared to the Masters. The simplicity of the paintings make them appealing.
BTW, Uncle Eddie, I have a request - if there is going to be - ahem - "colorful content" in your posts, could you post a disclaimer, please? I read your blog when I'm taking a break @ work, and if anyone of authority saw this, I would have a lot of 'splainin' to do.
that bed painting is extremely creepy
Wonderful pictures, although some of them look stiff to me. However, great use of color. In addition to all of these posts about painters, do a post about people who wanted to be cartoonists, but failed. You'd be surprised that a lot of famous folk were once aspiring cartoonists. Take for example actor Gary Cooper, who did cartoons and illustrations for his high school paper in Montana. Also, there's actor John Barrymore, and author John Updike. I think people would like to know about that.
John Barrymore as a cartoonist? That would be interesting!
Probably my favorite living painter today outside of Thomas Kinkade, master of light, is John Harris.
http://www.imageraptor.com/1/jharris1.htm
http://www.alisoneldred.com/JohnHarris.html
If I painted, it'd be like this.
Nice brushwork. What vintage is this? Kind of like turn of the century illustrators in the Weyeth and Bellows.
One more thing: In that rear shot it looks like the longest pelvis I've ever seen.
It almost looks like hes painting what happens immediately after you you take a photograph of the subject.
If that makes sense. He's captured something in all of those pictures
that painters/artists don't usually try to capture.
Barrymore went to art school(I believe in Philadelphia), and very much wanted to be an illustrator. His family kind of dragooned him into the family business, acting on the stage. It's thought that this was where his always slightly cavalier attitude towardsa cting came from. Lionel Barrymore was also an accomplished artist.
I've seen some of John Barrymore's drawings; he did many that were self portraits of himself as various characters: Fagin, Svengali, Mr, Hyde etc. A friend of mine owned some originals. I love Barrymore's style--they were great drawings.
Also at the shop where I worked in the mid 80s John Jr. came in, holding some framed originals of his dad's under his coat. He wanted to sell them for cash(he was pretty much living on the streets)--but he wanted I think 20K for them! No way my boss could fork that over.
Currin is arguably the most famous figurative painter of the last 20 years, but I don't know...I feel like if I've seen one bulbous arse I've seen them all, know what I mean? Kind of lifeless to me.
These are all so CREEPY! Even the rectangle-butt is off-putting. Creepy eyes, creepy women, crazy! The second one is horrific!
Currin is one of the best-selling contemporary american painters, at least according to the art dealers. Would his work be more or less popular if he didn't depict figures (esp. women) with such cartoon-like exagerration? Is "art" about such a distortion? If you look at the history of painting, many works have an "artistic" distortion. As for the artist, he said that he would still be painting surfboards in Santa Cruz Cal. if he could make more money.
Jenny: You've SEEN Barrymore cartoons!!?? Why not post them on you site? I'd love to see them!
Don't forget actor Roger Moore, who actually worked as an animator at Halas and Batchelor until he got canned. "They should have fired me", Moore recalled. "I couldn't draw!"
Looks like a poor man's Edward Hopper.
Although the magazine ad is funny. Maybe he should have been a satirist?
Oh, you'd like Barrymore's drawings I think. I wish I had a copy of any of them--I searched google to link an image here, but nothing came up. : (
I know that in at least one book on the Barrymores one or two of John's drawings are reproduced-maybe I can find one.
These are really scary- like pictures that would be in a haunted Hollywood house haha.
[Looks at #3].
Wow, now *that's* some pancake ass.
Jenny: I'm a huge fan of John Barrymore! I'll be interested to see what you come up with!
Oh, Eddie! I didn't know you dug Barrymore! I've got a very rare pic of him as a youth(pre-cinema); I'll put that up.
i saw his retrospective at the Whitney Museum a few years back. These are pretty exemplirary of his work overall, even tho i don't think i single one of these pictures was in that show even. He's definitly one of the most amusing artists in the fine arts scene today.
Currin makes me yearn for Lisa Yuskavage. Google her.
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