John Currin, an American painter, who depicts mainly women with distorted features. His works are satirical and very often erotic. At first glance they are sexist, but (I believe) it's one of those cases that attacks sexism by being sexist: by pointing out the absurdity of how the media portraits as the attractiveness of women, and how women are seen as sexual objects.
It's fairly easy to tell that Currin's work is influenced by many things. Some of the women in his painting look like Renaissance figures, and sometimes the elongation of certain features is reminiscent of Mannerism paintings. A lot of them are also inspired by popular culture and contemporary fashion models.
John Currin's work does effectively bring out the essence of his concept. As you mentioned, the absurdity of the work- the enlarged breast, the jolly figures, and the emphasized features, points out how women are often sexualized as objects or representations of sexual innuendo in the popular culture. It is also fairly creative of him to use similar gestures of women from the earlier period such as the renaissance in his art works.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can relate your work to these works.