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Thomas Hart Benton, Persephone
Okay, can we dwell on the similarity between these two paintings? Because it makes a difference. Jamie Adams’ jeaniebed is from a 2006 series all featuring New Wave icon Jean Seberg. The Benton painting has a bit of a backstory of its own. Persephone purportedly cost Benton his teaching post at the Kansas City Art Institute. Looking at the two paintings together, Benton’s actually seems the more hipster, pseudo-ironic and cynical. Adams’ painting– -though seemingly informed by contemporary artists like John Currin, Will Cotton or Pieter Schoolwerth—actually seems to be, well, just a little sweeter, shy-er and more reverent in the depiction of its protagonists and their surroundings.
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More Jamie Adams
jeaniebreathn, 2006, oil on linen, 42″ x 72″
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jeaniehangn, 2006, oil on linen, 48″ x 36″
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The Pinkch, 2000, oil on linen, 88″ x 109″
adams is one of my favorites over the last few years, and these newer works are, at least to my eye, a step toward more subtle tensions than the artist’s earlier works (such as “the pinkch” you show at the bottom). in the earlier pieces, scale, caricature, distortion, and color seem to be the primary means of conveying what i read as a sort of ironic commentary. they are more overt. these newer works seem to rest more on the subjects – here it’s seberg (and the implied narrative of desire – i mean, check out how the clothe touches her behind there), but he’s worked with other icons such as marilyn monroe. visually, it’s really quite a sea-change. i didn’t even recognize them as his paintings because of this difference.
as to how they relate to the benton, well, i guess i feel like “the form is content” concept might cause a mis-read here. i may be wrong, but i really feel a totally different kind of intent behind the adams work than i get from benton. what i mean here is that it seems like the benton works carry less content in their making than adams works do. i’m open to instruction here…
No, I almost totally agree with you. What I meant (but didn’t make as clear as I’d hoped) was that the similarities do highlight the differences.
I mean, I do think that any image of a clothed man positioned above and looking at a reclining nude woman has a certain amount of content implied–whether the image is antique, baroque, modern or postmodern. I do agree totally that Jamie Adams’ painting is the more subtle–or at least has a sweeter, more awkward subtle tension to it. My immediate assumption about the Adams painting was that it was the hipster, ironic, ‘look my light-hearted disdain for my pop culture crushes is way more feigned than yours is…” model of painting. It was only when the two images randomly came up next to each other on my computer I noticed that in spite of the obvious similarities between the form and the subject, there is a real difference of intent. Benton’s painting is the one that embodies all those qualities–irony, cynicism, lack of seriousness–that one is trained to immediately associate with contemporary painting. Persphone led me to re-think my first take on jeanibed.