L.A. Portraiture: Post-Cool

Art in America, Oct, 1999 by Michael Duncan

(2.) Today's renewed interest in portraiture is not limited to Los Angeles. Surreal energy, masterful craft and comic invention have been evident in recent work by such New York figurative artists as Thomas Woodruff, Susanna Coffey, Julie Heffernan, Susan Hauptmann and Mark Greenwold (to name only those whose works have drifted into my West Coast consciousness). This list deliberately excludes the three most acclaimed contemporary New York figurative artists: John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage and Elizabeth Peyton [about the first two of these, see A.i.A., Dec. '97]. To my mind, these three adopt an ironic stance toward traditional painterly techniques, in this way ensuring that their work is exempt from any need to make direct statements about human experience. Currin's lustiness, Yuskavage's self-loathing and Peyton's ham-fisted romanticism can be appreciated only by reading their works in quotation marks; unlike the painters I discuss in this article, they communicate through indirection. If sincerity exists at all in their works, it is filtered through protective ironies that are openly concerned with kitsch, ersatz feelings and self-conscious anxieties.

(3.) In its intensity and thoughtfulness, Majoli's portrait seems, moreover, the antithesis of Lynda Benglis's notorious, still-shocking 1974 Artforum ad, in which a sensationalist nude image of the artist with dildo was intended to provoke, scandalize and satirize the male-dominated art world.

(4.) Although Bamber has been living in New York for the past few years, her roots are still very much in the local LA. art community. Kurt Kauper has also been absent lately from his core group of supporters; he has been teaching for the past two years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Amy Adler shows at Margo Leavin, Los Angeles, and at Casey Kaplan, New York, where she has an exhibition scheduled for March 2000; Judie Bamber shows at Richard Telles Fine Art, LA.; Tim Ebner will show at Rosamund Felsen, Santa Monica (Mar. 18-Apr. 15, 2000); Kurt Kauper shows at Acme, L.A., and has an upcoming exhibition at Deitch Projects, New York (May 2000); Tom Knechtel shows at P.P.O.W., New York; Monica Majoli shows at Feature, New York; M.A. Peers has an exhibition scheduled at Rosamund Felsen (Sept. 9-Oct. 7, 2000); Keith Sklar will also exhibit at Rosamund Felsen (Oct. 9-30, 1999); and John Sonsini shows at Dan Bernier, L.A.

Michael Duncan is currently finishing a book on contemporary Los Angeles art for St. Martin's Press.