Article: A painter in midcurrent: the recent survey of John Currin's paintings gave viewers in New York, Chicago and London an opportunity to assess the achievement of this provocative artist.

In some ways this midcareer retrospective of John Currin's paintings felt like a throwback to the 1980s, when the Whitney routinely mounted big shows of the hot artists of the moment, even though it was the Chicago MCA and London's Serpentine Gallery that organized this exhibition. While one would hate to see the museum, which has recently hired a new director, resume its lockstep duet with the art market, there's a strong argument for making available to the public a generous selection of work by a much-talked-about artist. If such shows risk functioning as institutional seals of approval, they can also serve as testing grounds, occasions to see if the art lives up to the ...

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