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John Currin & American Grotesque (1)

(2007-04-26 23:05:49) 下一个
For those fascinated by chronology, it's a happy coincidence that John Currin was born in 1962. In that year, Roy Lichtenstein had his 1st one-man show at the Leo Castelli Gallery, and to the horor of all sensitive, art-loving people, set forth a new vision of what might be called "American Grotesque". He found his sources in the oceans of un-looked at visual trash that hurt eyes of refined spectators, and disclosed, among other shocks in our image world, how strange, to the point of being hideous, the American idea of female beauty could be.Culled from lowbudget ads & comic strips, these ripe young girls when enlarged and presented as oil paintings for close-up scruntiny, turned out to be monsters, belying their original purpose of seducing the vast unwashed american public into spending $$$ on holiday resorts, soap opera and kitchen appliances. The faces of this artificial race were discovered to have paralyzed masklike perfection; the limbs and torsos of their warped, steam-rolled bodies were entirely depleted of bone, joints, and muscle, so that their fluid contours could expand and contract at the artist's will. But of course the shock eventually wore off, and now these paintings look not like their commercial soources but like vintage, museum-worthy Lichtensteins, as much as the nudes of Boucher or Canova, Ingres or Renoir. And on a less exalted, american wavelength, moving closer in time to Currin's grass roots heritage, I might mention the pinups of George Petty and his successor Albreto Vargras, whose silk-smoothed, pneumatic fantansies of rounded and elongated female flesh established their own race of sex goddesses. From the 103os to the 1960s, these shared erotic dreams kept arosing heterosexual subscribers to Esquire or Playboyand surely helped to inspire the pinup nudes that, in the early 1960s, also became the satirical focus of many works by Lichtestien's pop contemporaties Tom Wesselmann and Mel Ramos. Today, of course these mid-century objectsof desire seem remotely artificial and unsexy as japanese erotica, havinglong ago become nostalgic documents of another era far less likely to prompt contemporary lust than to provide a field day for students of gender roles in american culture.

All of this may offer some preparation for looking at Currin's ever-expanding population of American humanoids, a completely original update of works by 1960s pioneers who were excited by the aesthetic potential lurking in the eeriness of contemporary america. One might begin, as Currin did, with the commonplace of portrait photographs, like those preserved in the highschool year books people remember from thier even more distant youths. From 1989 on, thos egalitarian format haunted him; and with a bias as predictable as Renoir's, he focused exclusively on the girls in the class

to be continued......

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=47tvfkn
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2nl7nd0
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2cpz5z8
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=317a8g9
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=472a44k
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4htgfgj

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BlackOrchid 回复 悄悄话 我也嚴重認為你偷懶 為什麼不貼圖在文章中呢,那麼圖片我搬走了有空做歌送給你
小屁友 回复 悄悄话 樓 下 的 魚 狼 ﹗

0487561
嘻 嘻
加州鱼郎 回复 悄悄话 砍不动也要砍?好吧,你先翻地上,我抡圆了试试砍吧.黄金数不数没关系,就叫希望帮忙往我的卡车上装好了.
惠兰 回复 悄悄话 jerryus 和木兰好幽默喔,
充满希望 回复 悄悄话 来得早不如来得巧, 有银子分太好了.
木兰木兰 回复 悄悄话 小声点儿,小声点儿啊我的小祖宗! 发财作兴闷声大发财啊!你这么着一激动芳心, 那鱼郎先就知道你我发了财,一犯红眼儿病,拿着鱼刀就上俺家来了,今儿晚上你我都别睡觉了,看银子嘍!
jerryus 回复 悄悄话 砍不动也要砍,这是练臂力的时候,好好学习学习啊!
木兰,收钱,每个人3两黄金,ESL补习班一个星期的干活,要让木兰当老师,当然要出高价啦!伙食,食宿自理啊!(哗,这么多银啊!木兰,木兰,激动人心的时刻到了......额....额......们发财勒!
加州鱼郎 回复 悄悄话 你翻了俺也砍不动
wangzi 回复 悄悄话 在下对你的景仰之情有如滔滔长江之水,连绵不绝……
又如黄河泛滥,一发不可收拾……
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Glider 回复 悄悄话 俺回投给你翻!~~ zt.

Is one of the portraits his selfportrait?

The faces and expressions look great in his pieces. The bottom of the right woman doesnt look right on following picture. All the knees look weired. Is this the new style?

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=317a8g9
helensavva 回复 悄悄话 英格烈士滴看不懂^^
uh-oh 回复 悄悄话 看起来,还是需要我出手了,现翻译一点,反映好的话,再继续。
您手里有什么,就尽管来吧,我怕谁啊?


For those fascinated by chronology, it's a happy coincidence that John Currin was born in 1962. In that year,
因为那些根据年代表令人入神, 它\\\\\\\'s 约翰 Currin 在 1962 年出生的一个快乐的巧合. 在那年内,

Roy Lichtenstein had his 1st one-man show at the Leo Castelli Gallery, and to the horor of all sensitive, art-loving people, set forth a new vision of what might be called "American Grotesque".

Roy Lichtenstein 在狮子座 Castelli 回廊有了他的第一场一男人的表演, 而且对所有敏感又爱好艺术的人的 horor ,发表什么可能是 called\\\" 的新视觉美国怪异图案\\\".

(支持整段文字翻译;经英语专家确认,翻译准确率达85%。提供在线汉译英,在线英译汉,日语翻译,繁体翻译等多语言翻译服务)

redtruck 回复 悄悄话 蓓 兒

英格烈士滴額也看不懂﹗

Sweetlife 回复 悄悄话 俺回投给你翻!
惠兰 回复 悄悄话 问好木兰.周末愉快.
蓓0217 回复 悄悄话 眼八八地来看乐N回,英格烈士滴看不懂^^
衣衣衣 回复 悄悄话 要求翻译zt 木兰写得好. 不过姑娘好象已经欠了好几篇了吧?哈哈,慢慢写, 俺等你的下文.
ice3 回复 悄悄话
++要求把图直接贴入文里.

你偷懒~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ice3 回复 悄悄话 (ZT)Look forward to your John Curin (2).
+要求翻译~ :))
眼科医生 回复 悄悄话 木兰, your English is almost as good as your Chinese writing.I have seen Curin's show,his wife Rachel is also an oil artist, but since Curin became famous, never herd she worked again, they live in the west Village....Look forward to your John Curin (2).
uh-oh 回复 悄悄话
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