Details

Provenance

Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco Christie’s New York, 15 May 2002, lot 310 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Catalogue note 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.

Catalog summary

John Currin b. 1962 Untitled gouache on brown paper 12 by 8⅛ in. 30.5 by 20.6 cm. Executed in 1998. Provenance Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco Christie’s New York, 15 May 2002, lot 310 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Catalogue note 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.