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John Currin & American Grotesque (1)

(2007-04-26 23:05:49) 下一個
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 回複 悄悄話 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 回複 悄悄話 樓 下 的 魚 狼 ﹗

0487561
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加州魚郎 回複 悄悄話 砍不動也要砍?好吧,你先翻地上,我掄圓了試試砍吧.黃金數不數沒關係,就叫希望幫忙往我的卡車上裝好了.
惠蘭 回複 悄悄話 jerryus 和木蘭好幽默喔,
充滿希望 回複 悄悄話 來得早不如來得巧, 有銀子分太好了.
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jerryus 回複 悄悄話 砍不動也要砍,這是練臂力的時候,好好學習學習啊!
木蘭,收錢,每個人3兩黃金,ESL補習班一個星期的幹活,要讓木蘭當老師,當然要出高價啦!夥食,食宿自理啊!(嘩,這麽多銀啊!木蘭,木蘭,激動人心的時刻到了......額....額......們發財勒!
加州魚郎 回複 悄悄話 你翻了俺也砍不動
wangzi 回複 悄悄話 在下對你的景仰之情有如滔滔長江之水,連綿不絕……
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Glider 回複 悄悄話 俺回投給你翻!~~ 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 回複 悄悄話 英格烈士滴看不懂^^
uh-oh 回複 悄悄話 看起來,還是需要我出手了,現翻譯一點,反映好的話,再繼續。
您手裏有什麽,就盡管來吧,我怕誰啊?


For those fascinated by chronology, it's a happy coincidence that John Currin was born in 1962. In that year,
因為那些根據年代表令人入神, 它\\\\\\\'s 約翰 Currin 在 1962 年出生的一個快樂的巧合. 在那年內,

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 在獅子座 Castelli 回廊有了他的第一場一男人的表演, 而且對所有敏感又愛好藝術的人的 horor ,發表什麽可能是 called\\\" 的新視覺美國怪異圖案\\\".

(支持整段文字翻譯;經英語專家確認,翻譯準確率達85%。提供在線漢譯英,在線英譯漢,日語翻譯,繁體翻譯等多語言翻譯服務)

redtruck 回複 悄悄話 蓓 兒

英格烈士滴額也看不懂﹗

Sweetlife 回複 悄悄話 俺回投給你翻!
惠蘭 回複 悄悄話 問好木蘭.周末愉快.
蓓0217 回複 悄悄話 眼八八地來看樂N回,英格烈士滴看不懂^^
衣衣衣 回複 悄悄話 要求翻譯zt 木蘭寫得好. 不過姑娘好象已經欠了好幾篇了吧?哈哈,慢慢寫, 俺等你的下文.
ice3 回複 悄悄話
++要求把圖直接貼入文裏.

你偷懶~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ice3 回複 悄悄話 (ZT)Look forward to your John Curin (2).
+要求翻譯~ :))
眼科醫生 回複 悄悄話 木蘭, 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 回複 悄悄話
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