John Currin

Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco

Christie’s New York, 15 May 2002, lot 310

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

John Currin’s skillfully executed, often erotic paintings of female companions are acclaimed for melding art historical precedents with contemporary concerns. In Untitled, two voluptuous nudes with exaggerated proportions and poses illustrate Currin’s deep exploration of classical painterly techniques and Mannerist compositions, as well as his ability to maintain a balance between the beautiful and the grotesque. “Realizing you need to follow your pleasure” as an artist, Currin has stated, “was an important development for me.” Serving as the embodiment of heterosexual male desire, Untitled, like many of Currin’s portraits of seductive nymphs, draws inspiration from diverse sources, from Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, to the clichés of advertising and pornography, inviting associations between past and present fantasies of female beauty.