
John Currin
Christiania, 2007

American painter John Currin intertwines the beautiful and grotesque with equal measure in his caricatures of lusty, doe-eyed female figures often portrayed in gross proportions that both enchant and repel. Drawing on a broad range of cultural influences from Renaissance oil paintings to 1950s women’s magazine ads and contemporary politics, his work is notable for its mix of technical virtuosity with mash-ups of high and low culture.


American painter John Currin intertwines the beautiful and grotesque with equal measure in his caricatures of lusty, doe-eyed female figures often portrayed in gross proportions that both enchant and repel. Drawing on a broad range of cultural influences from Renaissance oil paintings to 1950s women’s magazine ads and contemporary politics, his work is notable for its mix of technical virtuosity with mash-ups of high and low culture.