I am searching for the name of a living American painter whom I read
about in a feature-length article (I think he was on the cover) in the
New York Times Magazine between one and four years ago. The article
featured pictures of him, his wife, his house. His first name may be
John and I think his last name starts with a B. He paints, among other
things, surreal (but realistic)
pictures of women and girls, often buxom/angelic. He was criticized
for painting "shallow" subjects, I seem to remember, though in general
he is well received and quite famous. Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 22 Jan 2006 15:23 PST

Hi redmango,

Could the artist you are thinking of be John Currin?

For copyright reasons, I will only post a few excerpts of the article
from the New York Times Magazine:

Mr. Bodacious
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
Published: November 16, 2003

"John Currin is an American artist who cares little for American art.
''I wish I could find more to love about it,'' he recently observed,
''but it's hard. I have not seen the will to make a masterpiece in
American art. What's here? Albert Bierstadt? He's small beer compared
to the Europeans.''
(...)
"To be sure, Currin's work is hardly irony-free, and he is not a
traditional figure painter sketching away as a shapely redhead holds a
pose for him in a garret. Rather, he quotes extensively from existing
imagery, mixing and matching styles like a proper postmodernist.
Compared with older, celebrated New York figurative painters like Alex
Katz and Eric Fischl, Currin doesn't try to capture a sitter's
personality or the social milieu to which he or she belongs. Many of
his paintings have an elegant Northern Renaissance feeling, with crisp
lines, dramatic contrasts of dark and light and sinuous women who
appear to have stepped out of a canvas by Lucas Cranach the Elder
(think porcelain-white flesh gleaming against leathery grounds).
(...)
"His wife, Rachel Feinstein, a 32-year-old sculptor, is also wedded to
her own fantasy of the past. One of her recent sculptures consists of
an actual bridge unlike any other, an arching, sparkly structure
carved from Styrofoam and swathed in gold leaf."

Looking forward to your views.

Best regards,
Rainbow

Hi redmango,

After further research, I am quite confident the artist you are
looking for is John Currin.

In addition to the excerpt from the New York Times Magazine posted in
my clarification, the following are excerpts of articles about this
artist:


"In the last decade, American artist John Currin has been celebrated
as one of the most important and provocative artists of his
generation."
(...)
"Currin is best known for his paintings of women, many with features
that have been distorted or exaggerated. By exploring issues of beauty
and desire through the presentation of the physical body and human
relationships, his challenging images have aroused debate in the
context of both art and popular culture, and are as beautiful as they
are arresting and enigmatic."
(...)
"By 1998, Currin began working on a series of nudes with elongated
bodies and limbs. This group led to the multi-figure scenarios of
suburban or domestic life that are extremely painterly in the
exaggerated gestures of the figures, the loose brushstrokes and
unorthodox palettes, and the detailed backgrounds..."

Museum of Contemporary Art
http://www.mcachicago.org/MCA/About/Press/JohnCurrin.html


"...Feminists have sometimes reacted unkindly to Currin?s portrayal of
females, particularly his series from the late nineties featuring
women with insanely large, almost inflatable chests, such as The Bra
Shop (1997) and Jaunty and Mame (1997)."
(...)
"This sea-change in stye and approach to women could perhaps be
explained by his marriage to sculptor Rachel Feinstein, whom he began
to use as inspiration for many of his subsequent paintings. Although
the women in his later works are not precise recreations of his wife,
it's clear from his first actual portrait of her, Rachel in Fur
(2002), that he has been drawing on the proportions of her face."

Pixelsurgeon Creative Consultants 
http://pixelsurgeon.com/reviews/review.php?id=258  


More on John Currin:

Wikipedia: John Currin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Currin

Artnet : Defending John Currin
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/finch/finch11-10-03.asp


I hope this is helpful. If you have any questions regarding my answer,
or believe this is not the artist you are thinking of, please don?t
hesitate to ask for further assistance before rating.

Best regards,
Rainbow

It's indeed John Currin! Thank you so much for the excellent, prompt,
thorough and accurate answer.

I'm glad I could help. Thank you very much for the rating and tip.
Best regards,
Rainbow