With Barbed Wit Aforethought

"Mr. Currin is among other things a latter-day Jeff Koons, trafficking in lowdown humor, heartless kitsch and ironic smut, while offering up dollops of finesse, beauty and brains. The combination is disorienting and, at its best, thrilling. People split over his art, usually a good sign. The bottom line is that he can paint well -- better and better over the last decade -- in a suave and malevolent vein, which no doubt looks more striking because fashionable painters these days tend to lack his basic old-fashioned skills."

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