John Currin: Works on Paper
Des Moines Art Center
February 13, 2003 - April 27, 2003
Des Moines Art Center
February 13, 2003 - April 27, 2003
The Des Moines Art Center presents John Currin: Works on Paper, the first museum exhibition to focus on the drawings of John Currin.
Chosen with the artist’s participation, this important exhibition features a selection of 30 drawings that presents an overview of John Currin’s work in the medium from 1990 until the present. John Currin’s drawings allude to art history, but also respond to contemporary sensibilities. Among other sources, he references the art of the Renaissance, Italian Mannerism, French Rococo, and popular illustration. Humor, absurdity, and technical virtuosity mark the artwork. Often sexually charged, but always psychologically jarring, John Currin’s work points the way for a new mode of realism in contemporary art.
John Currin’s drawings are frequently preliminary sketches for paintings, as seen in Three Friends, 1998, or they function as exercises to resolve compositional problems and to enhance skills. Many are refined and complete works of art; others are obviously gestural and quickly done. As such, the drawings illuminate the artist’s decision-making processes and provide documentation of his creative method. All of the drawings focus on depictions of people in a variety of circumstances; they are about sexuality, human emotions, and observing the nuances of character. The work has an air of artificiality, but real emotions survive in spite of the affectedness. John Currin describes his art as mixing a “celestial sweetness with a dark terror.”
Following its premiere in Des Moines, the exhibition can be seen at the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, from June 6, 2003 – September 7, 2003.
Funding for John Currin: Works on Paper was provided by the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, and the Corporate Council through the Major Exhibition Fund.
