“No one does it like John does,” said Marc Jacobs at Gagosian Gallery’s opening of **John Currin’**s paintings last night, where sleety rain did nothing to deter an enthusiastic crowd. A dozen or so new paintings showed portraits of imaginary blonde women (and a pair of men), mostly naked, some clothed, often in scenes of eccentric intimacy, and all rendered with Currin’s amazing virtuosity.
A powerful contingent of artists—Cecily Brown, George Condo, Brice and Helen Marden, Tony Oursler and Jacqueline Humphries, Sean Landers, David Salle, Rudolf Stingel, and Lisa Yuskavage—celebrated late into the evening with an eclectic mix of grandees, fashion designers, writers, and friends at a dinner at **Jean-Georges Vongerichten’**s restaurant at the Mark Hotel: Eli Broad, Wendi Murdoch, Steve Martin, Stefano Pilati, Sadie Coles, Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour, John McEnroe, Tom Wolfe, and James Frey.
John Currin, "New Paintings," November 4—December 22, 2010
Gagosian Gallery, gagosian.com