John Currin

INTERVIEW AND PORTRAITS BY OLIVIER ZAHM ALL ARTWORK COPYRIGHT JOHN CURRIN, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND SADIE COLES HQ, LONDON NEW YORK SUPERSTAR AND MASTER PAINTER JOHN CURRIN REINCARNATES THE POWER AND AUTHORITY OF AMERICAN FIGURATIVE PAINTING. OLIVIER ZAHM — How many years have you been in New York? JOHN CURRIN — Three-and-a- half decades. I came here two years after school. My first year after school, I lived with my girlfriend, who was a graduate student at Yale, basically sponging off her to feed me and take care of me while I sat and wept in my studio. Then I moved to Hoboken. I was scared to move to New York City. OLIVIER ZAHM — Renée Green was living in Hoboken. Do you remember her? JOHN CURRIN — Oh fuck, yeah, I had a crush on her. I haven’t seen her in years. But anyway, I lived in Hoboken…