02 Apr - 07 June 2008
69 South Audley Street, London W1
Sadie Coles HQ is presenting a major new series of paintings by American painter John Currin whose subjects range from the domestic to the overtly erotic. These exceptionally refined and gloriously engaging paintings continue the intense debate within Currin’s work that combines art historical technique with contemporary reference. While some of Currin’s new paintings are of flowers and exquisite china, most are depictions of hardcore eroticism taken from European pornography.
Pornography is functional and almost by definition an unembellished celluloid or digital idiom. Indeed, one of the primary uses of photography is porn, and a painting would struggle to claim to be as immediate or undeniably in the moment as a photograph.