I've been looking into modern art that uses pornography as an element and discovered that John Currin, a very successful modern American painter well known for his satirical and grotesque portraits, has turned to painting photos from pornography, most apparently from the rather infamous Color Climax in the 70s.

Oddly a lot of the commentary refers to it as 'Swedish porn' although Color Climax is actually based in Denmark.

Also amusing that a lot of the response seems to be to the amount of public hair the models have!

The response to his paintings have been mixed, but then the response to all his work has been mixed over the years. He says his intention was to 'take something ugly and see if I could make it beautiful.' Some are more successful than others, I've never been a fan of Color Climax's porn which does have a rather ugly aesthetic imo.

It is interesting to see some dismiss the paintings as merely shock tactics, or passe since porn is supposedly so mainstream (although I think the response to his paintings continues to suggest that porn is not nearly as mainstream and passe as many claim).

There is certainly some irony in these pornographic images being sold for six figures and the original photographers and performers are rendered invisible in the process but that's modern art for you.

I think this is my favourite of his paintings on the subject so far.