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 | | Currins immorality has taken the form of a peculiarly weird brand of figuration during a decade of American art that he helped shape. |
 | | In both cases, Currin deflates the fearfulness and drama of his historical sources, opting to record a sort of blithe calmness instead, perhaps in representation of his own painterly joy: Blond Angel, for example, stares out smilingly where Caravaggio paints a severed head, while Odalisque peeks out flirtatiously behind a pair of unrealistic, cartoony feet. |
 | | One cannot help but think, however immoral the thought, that Currins series of elaborate and shifting quotations are chiefly a game, an intellectual ruse that permits him to lavish an amazing amount of painterly attention on, say, creamy female flesh or a pair of striped gardening gloves. |
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