Currin is noted by wide audiences for his paintings of strangely represented women in normal proportions. He portrays images of deformed or fake feminine beauty, a sort of feminine caricature for example, very thin, Junoesque, old or young women. However, in the eyes void of expression and in the frozen smiles of these women, Currin seems to underline the moral decadence determined by the rut of the capitalistic American system. In fact, the true protagonist of Currin’s pictures is the American WASP, the white Anglo-Saxon puritans represented as well dressed and well educated people with faces depraved of all inner life, vacant eyes void of all depth, almost a parody of what is “politically correct”. That which strikes us about his images today is his extraordinary mastery of oils, put to use by a probing calligraphic style. Currin’s creativity demonstrates a great eclecticism in his capacity to deepen the teachings of great masters, like Botticelli, Tiepolo or Mantegna with elements of popular American culture; in doing so, the painter creates a clear visual image, at once sad and comic, of a society that is perceived for its fake values of appearance, richness, and artificial beauty. Currin enjoys producing “cultured” and pornographic art, continuously playing at contaminating sources and alleviating explicit scenes by filtering it with beautiful images.
In his most recent series, the artist started to paint women with huge breasts, emphasising in particular the bust and hands with thick brushstrokes. Even though he uses some physical attributes from works by Bottecelli or paints the sky in a Rococo style, in this case too, Currin wholly limits himself to this realism of caricatures. His interest in old pictorial paintings is clear in which Currin is certainly trying to be part of.
John Currin is one of the most quoted figurative contemporary artists. One of his most recent works sold in October 2007 at the Phillips de Pury auction house in New York : “Red Faced Woman” an oil painting on canvass from 1992 went under the hammer for 275 million dollars, starting out from an estimate of 185-259 million dollars. The oil painting “The King”, executed in 2002, was sold in 2004 in New York’s Phillips de Pury for 150 million dollars (119,580 euros) against an initial estimate of 150-200 million dollars. Again in the same year at Sotheby’s New York, “Their Optimist” went under the hammer for 372,857 dollars (estimated at 400-600 million dollars). “Entertaining Mr. Acker Bilk”, a painting executed in 1995, was sold in 1992 by Sotheby’s New York at 367,411 dollars (405, 441 euros).
For now John Currin’s record was verified in November 2004 at Christie’s New York: the oil painting from 1999 entitled “Homemade Pasta” was sold for 750 million dollars, equal to 581,550 euros, beginning from an initial estimated value of 700-900 million dollars.

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