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Article: John Waters: Marianne Boesky.(NEW YORK)
- Article from:
- Art in America
- Article date:
- June 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Director John Waters's ascent from notorious creator of Pink Flamingos (1972) to toast of Broadway is as instructive a lesson in the meshing of high and low American culture as is his film Pecker (1998), a cautionary fable--set in the art world--of redemption. His connoisseurship of vulgar Americana is rooted in Baltimore, his beloved hometown, which he depicts in that film as a vibrant, pansexual utopia.
Waters is a parodist. His first great subject was the average American family, and his second great subject is the art made in the period of his gallery debut. In 1995, being an artist looked mighty easy, especially from the perspective of the relaxed esthetic at ...