Stamford after Brunch

2000

John Currin
American, born 1962

The domestic scenes, portraits, and nudes painted by John Currin have been called “American grotesque,” as unsettling as they are meticulously rendered. Stamford after Brunch captures the giddy camaraderie of three women with soft, childlike arms and improbably scrawny, angular legs. While the figures laugh, drink martinis, and smoke cigars, the winter landscape outside stands in acute contrast to the interior comforts of warm conversation and lightweight clothing. The three women, near caricatures, represent the artist’s principal gallerists at the time (Sadie Coles, Andrea Rosen, and Shaun Regen) visiting Currin’s Connecticut home.

Status: On View, Gallery 296
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: John Currin
Title: Stamford after Brunch
Place: United States (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 2000
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 101.6 × 152.4 cm (40 × 60 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection
Reference Number: 2015.146

Dodie Kazanjian, “The Young Master,” Vogue 190, no. 11 (Nov. 2000), 484–485 (color. Ill.).
Sibylle Berg, “Viele bunte Bilder, darauf:/Lots of Colorful Pictures, in Them:” Parkett 65 (Sept. 2002), 47 (color ill.).
Robert Storr, “John Currin: Master of the Grotesque,” Art Press 280 (June 2002), 50 (color ill.).
Robert Rosenblum, Staci Boris, and Rochelle Steiner, John Currin, exh. cat. (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago/Serpentine Gallery/Harry N. Abrams, 2003), 2–3 (color ill.), 21, 52, 81, 117.
Jessica Berens, “We Are Not a Muse,” The Observer Magazine, Aug. 31, 2003, 20–21 (color ill.).
Tom Lubbock, “Borrowed and Blue: Why Are John Currin’s Painted Figures So Unsettling?” The Independent, Sept. 9, 2003, 14–15 (ill.).
Peter Chapman, “Private View: John Currin at Serpentine Gallery,” The Independent, Sept. 20, 2003, 15 (ill.).
Andrew Lambirth, “Slick and Distasteful,” The Spectator, Sept. 20, 2003, 60 (ill.).
Robert Cumming, “John Currin,” Art Review, 1, no. 12 (Nov. 2003), 101 (color ill.).
Michael Kimmelmann, “With Barbed Wit Afterthought,” The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2003, E31 (color ill.).
Jemima Montagu, “John Currin: Serpentine Gallery, London, “Modern Painters, 16, no. 4 (Winter 2003), 119 (color ill.).
Richard Lacayo, “Designing Women: John Currin Is the Big Painter of the Moment, His Retrospective Makes You Ask, Does Size Matter?” Time 162, no. 24 (Dec. 15, 2003) 79 (color ill.).
Peter Schjeldahl, “Irresistible: John Currin at the Whitney,” The New Yorker, 79, no. 39 (Dec. 15, 2003), 105.
Mia Fineman, “Talk of the Town: Critics Love the Painter John Currin. But Why?” Slate Magazine (Dec. 30, 2003), color ill., http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/art/2003/12/talk_of_the_town.html, accessed Aug. 17, 2015.
Nicolette Ramirez, “John Currin: Whitney Museum of American Art,” The New York Art World (Feb. 2004), 11–12.
Arthur C. Danto, “Bad Boy, Good Manners: John Currin,” The Nation 278, no. 4 (Feb. 2, 2004), 30 (ill.).
Peter Goddard, “Why This Picture Needs Defending, For Now,” The Toronto Star, Feb. 21, 2004, H4 (ill.).
Manami Fujimori, “Very New Art 2004: John Currin,” Bijutsu Techo 56, no. 847 (April 2004), 61 (color ill.).
Ute Thon, “Der Wellness–Künstler,” Art no. 4 (April 2004), 30–31 (color ill.).
Michael D. Sharp, ed., Popular Contemporary Writers (Marshall Cavendish, 2005), 1355 (color ill.).
Kara Vander Weg, ed., John Currin, with essays by Norman Bryson, Alison M. Gingeras, and Dave Eggers (Gagosian Gallery/Rizzoli, 2006), 258, 259 (color ill.).
John Zeppetelli, John Currin, exhibition brochure, (DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, 2011), n.p.
James Rondeau, Edlis/Neeson Collection: The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2015), 74, pl. 30, 75 (color ill.), 131.

Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, John Currin, May 3–Aug. 24, 2003, no cat. no.; London, Serpentine Gallery, Sept. 9–Nov. 2, 2003; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Nov. 20, 2003–Feb. 22, 2004.
Montreal, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, John Currin, June 30–Nov. 13, 2011, no. cat. no

The artist; sold through Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, to Andrea Rosen, 2000 [email from Andrea Rosen Gallery in object file]; sold through Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, to Stefan Edlis, Chicago, June 24, 2004 [copy of invoice in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 21, 2015.

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