5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
Carnegie Mellon University where John Currin received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1984.
Gallery of John Currin
New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
Yale University where John Currin obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1986.
Career
Gallery of John Currin
91 Horatio St, New York, NY 10014, United States
The White Columns gallery where John Currin had one of his debut solo exhibitions.
Gallery of John Currin
2008
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
John Currin at the Kids for Kids celebrity carnival benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Photo by Gabriela Maj.
Gallery of John Currin
2014
643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States
(Left to right) John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, designer Marc Jacobs, Nick Rhodes, and Nefer Suvio backstage at the Marc Jacobs fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 at Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris.
Gallery of John Currin
2018
(Left to right) John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Leo Villareal, and Jessica Craig Martin at John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Leo Villareal and Jessica Craig Martin attends Aby Rosen and Gagosian Celebrate Unveiling of Rachel Feinstein work at 100 East 53rd Street on April 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Owen HoffmannUnveiling of Rachel Feinstein work at 100 East 53rd Street in New York City. Photo by Owen Hoffmann.
John Currin at the Kids for Kids celebrity carnival benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Photo by Gabriela Maj.
(Left to right) John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, designer Marc Jacobs, Nick Rhodes, and Nefer Suvio backstage at the Marc Jacobs fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 at Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris.
221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012, United States
Artist John Currin and guest at the Broad Museumblack tie inaugural dinner held at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Tommaso Boddi.
(Left to right) John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Leo Villareal, and Jessica Craig Martin at John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Leo Villareal and Jessica Craig Martin attends Aby Rosen and Gagosian Celebrate Unveiling of Rachel Feinstein work at 100 East 53rd Street on April 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Owen HoffmannUnveiling of Rachel Feinstein work at 100 East 53rd Street in New York City. Photo by Owen Hoffmann.
456 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, United States
John Currin with his wife Rachel Feinstein and their children at the opening night of the artist's exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, California, United States, 2015
John Currin is a contemporary American artist. He is known for his figurative paintings made by using a combination of the Renaissance technics with the modern beauty standards interpreted in a humorist way. The canvases, often with female nudes of distorted or exaggerated forms, reflect the widespread obsession with beauty and perfection in the modern world.
Background
Ethnicity:
Both of John Currin’s parents came from the United States – Connecticut and Oklahoma states.
John Currin was born in 1962 in Boulder, Colorado, United States.
He was the third child of four in a family of physics professor and piano teacher.
Soon after his birth, the family relocated to Northern California. When he was a ten-year-old boy, they moved to Connecticut where Currin was raised.
Since the early childhood, John made a decision to become an artist.
Education
John Currin received his first painting lessons from the Ukrainian-born artist Lev Meshberg with whom he painted on weekends from the age of fourteen.
Later, Currin enrolled at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where he obtained the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1984.
In a couple of years, he graduated from the Yale University with a Master of Fine Arts degree. While studying, he got acquainted with a painter Lisa Yuskavage and a conceptual artist Sean Landers who became his close friends.
The start of John Currin’s career can be counted from his debut solo exhibition at the White Columns gallery in New York City in 1989. Currin presented to the public the portraits of young girls he had made of the photos in the high school yearbooks.
Later, the artist founded the sources of inspiration for his kitschy canvases in the periodicals like Playboy or Cosmopolitan. The master's use of the painting techniques with a combination of the subjects – shapely women and sexless divorcees – not typical for the period when the political topics were on the top, provided the artist with the popularity and financial stability in the 1990s. In 1992, Currin began his collaboration with the Andrea Rosen Gallery which had lasted till 2003 when the artist shifted to the Gagosian Gallery.
Since that time, he had solo and group exhibitions in various art galleries, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the art spaces in France, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria and Monaco.
Despite the Gagosian Gallery, Currin’s art is represented by Sadie Coles HQ gallery in London, United Kingdom.
Quotations:
"There is no misery in art. All art is about saying yes, and all art is about its own making."
"A lot of times maturing as an artist is just starting to do the things you like to do."
"Painting is like being a lawyer and attacking a corporation."
"There's nothing worse than people talking about theories and humor."
"In a capitalist system, things are valued by what people will pay for them."
"The mystique of painting is both very macho and of course as elegant as bubble bath – it can be as luxuriating as you care to be. The studio really is my boudoir; that's something I've always cherished about painting."
"I find I can't get rid of my trashiness as an artist. A lot of my themes in painting, to the extent that there are intentional themes, are meant to bring that conundrum into high relief."
"Often, I find myself attracted to ideas that are ill-advised and bad. It's not because I want to shock people or show how open-minded I am, but for some reason stupidity is a theme for me in painting and I find it liberating."
"I've always felt insecure about being a figurative artist, and about being an American painter. To me, oil painting is inherently European. My technique is in no way comparable with that of a mid-level European painter of the 19th century."
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"His technical skills which include elements of Old Master paint application and high-Mannerist composition, have been put to use on some of the most seductive and rivetingly weird figure paintings of our era." Calvin Tomkins, author and art critic at The New Yorker magazine
Connections
John Currin had romantic relationships with a founder of the Andrea Rosen Gallery, Andrea Rosen.
In 1994, the artist met the artist Rachel Feinstein who became his wife three years later. Rachel is a Currin’s muse, she often serves as a model for his canvases.
The couple has two sons and one daughter.
Spouse:
Rachel Feinstein
ex-girlfriend:
Andrea Rosen
Friend:
Lisa Yuskavage
Friend:
Sean Landers
References
John Currin
The monograph is a major survey of Currin's career, featuring his work since 1989.
John Currin
A catalogue of works by John Currin, one of the world’s foremost figurative painters.
2010
John Currin
Along with an insightful essay, this beautiful book features over forty-five striking color reproductions of John Currin’s most recent paintings, spanning from 2011 to 2015.