In Thanksgiving, however, Currin appears to add a gothic or sickly edge to a traditional family scene, with the raw flesh of the turkey, the dying flowers, the sombre clothing, and the strange expressions and elongated necks of the two standing figures providing a sense of unease. Alongside his wife, who Currin has often used as a model for the women in his paintings (see, for example, Honeymoon Nude 1998, Tate T07519), the figures in Thanksgiving also appear to have been inspired by a computer clip-art drawing owned by Currin (reproduced in Weg and Dergan 2006, p.326), which features a family cooking together in a similar grouping to the one seen in the final painting. (Quoted in Weg and Dergan 2006, p.326.)įollowing this account the uncooked turkey in the painting might be seen to refer to Currin and Feinstein’s unborn baby. Certain kinds of paintings were on my mind at the time – Dutch genre paintings, Velázquez’s bodegones – but as soon as I began, it became more about Rachel, and she posed for the figures a lot. The funny thing is that the painting took me exactly nine months to finish, and the painting turned into an allegory of Rachel’s pregnancy. Although the title Thanksgiving refers to the American holiday when turkey is traditionally served, the highly mannered style of this work – as well as the somewhat anachronistic clothing and décor depicted – seems to recall the tradition of northern European Renaissance painting.Ĭurrin has claimed that Thanksgiving, completed in New York where he has lived and worked since the late 1980s, was ‘a failed painting that sat around in my studio’ until he decided to return to it when his wife, the artist Rachel Feinstein, became pregnant. On the table in front of the women is an enormous uncooked turkey, along with a bunch of grapes, an onion, a white plate and a vase of flowers (which contains both decaying and vibrant roses). ![]() The third woman, who is wearing a brown smock, sits on the right of the painting with her head bowed and a grape in her hand. ![]() The woman on the left of the composition, holding the silver lid of a saucepan in one hand, feeds a spoon to a woman in a black dress next to her, who is arching her neck and opening her mouth in a manner reminiscent of a young bird or fish. It depicts in fine detail three young women of similar appearance (thin with pale skin and blonde hair) within an ornate setting decorated with marble columns, a chandelier and a silver-framed mirror. Thanksgiving 2003 is a large portrait format oil painting by American artist John Currin.
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