| | John Currin
Serpentine Gallery, London 9 Sept 2 Nov 2003 | <*dv_0*>Currin is a contemporary portrait artist. He does not paint specific subjects rather chooses to paint archetypal figures. His use of colour is reminiscent of the old Italian masters. It is rich vibrant and seems deceptively simple that does not hide an amazing ability to convey a very real sense of the person in each portrait. You are frequently left with the feeling you have seen or spoken to many of these people. A sense of humour and playfulness runs through many of Currins paintings. In one series of paintings he questions acceptable taste by giving the women impossibly large breasts. In another painting a women is having her breasts examined by a doctor, yet any titillation is strictly in the imagination as we can see nothing as the patient is hidden from view behind a screen. We can only tell that her breasts are being examined as a bra casually hangs over the top. It is as if he is making a tongue in cheek reference to these other works.
<*dv_1*> One painting based on a real person is a nude portrait of former Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur. By some cruel quirk of fate Arthur is currently appearing on stage in London at the moment. Does she know that elsewhere in London people are staring at her naked chest?
<*dv_2*> However the most striking aspect of his painting is the ability to capture a moment. In one painting a thin blonde with an elongated neck, holds a wine glass delicately between her fingers and laughs, you suspect, shrilly at some unheard joke. Her companion an older suited, overly groomed man seems to be paying an overt amount of attention to her. They are, you sense, not a couple. Though the male subject you guess has other designs. Fantastic.
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