John Currin's Embrace of New Eroticism, New Masters Art Is Thrilling, Not Chilling

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John Currin, “Constance Towers, 2009”American artist John Currin is showing new work at Manhattan’s Gagosian Gallery, November 4 through December 22, 2010.

John Currin is increasingly known for explicitly erotic flesh tones that might make Hugh Hefner blush — especially when Currin’s focus is increasingly womanly sex without a studmuffin to run the show.

We’ve commented before on Currin’s nearly Biblical references to human sexuality.

The New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman wrote in 1999, mixed “leering, light-headed kitsch, with old-masterish weight as if there were no distinction”. Kimmelman called Currin’s portfolio “a dizzying feat that makes every picture seem wholesome and evil at the same time”.

John Currin, “The Women of Franklin Street”From his Manhattan Soho loft, John Currin explained to The Independent:

“I love grand, classically nude paintings and there is really no situation where plausibly you have criss-crossing limbs and stuff like that except in pornography.” Also fascinating to him, however, was the possibility of bringing his oil-paint grandeur to scenes of cheap copulation.

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Women of the Wall's Anat Hoffman Still Not Officially Charged in Western Wall Incident

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Co-founder of Women of the Wall Anat Hoffman will speak this Friday evening at the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York. Hoffman was arrested on July 12, 2010, for carrying a Torah scroll at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, considered to be the holiest site in Judaism. Women are not allowed to pray at the Western Wall in the most holy area reserved for Orthodox men.

On October 6, 2010 a new regulation was passed in Israel, saying that no Torahs may be brought into the Western Wall area, that there are 100 Torahs available for public use, which is plenty. None of those Torahs are in the segregated are for women, an area outside of the ultra-Orthodox controlled Western Wall Plaza).

The Jerusalem Police have recommended that the Ministry of Justice press charges against Anat Hoffman for the felony of “gravely obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties”, in regards to her July arrest while holding a Torah at the Western Wall. The sentence for such a conviction is up to 3 years in prison.

Women Inspiring Women NYC Conference Launches Today

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The WIE Symposium (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise) is a dynamic new annual conference for women hosted by the White Ribbon Alliance, and taking place today, Sept. 20, 2010, in New York City, timed to coincide with the Clinton Global Initiative and the UN General Assembly. 

Sarah Brown, Arianna Huffington and Donna Karan will host the first annual conference for New York’s most powerful women in politics, philanthropy, media, fashion and the arts, collaborating under the topical umbrella “Women Inspiring Women.”

Members of the White Ribbon Alliance will be issuing a general call to action on the subject of maternal global health, one of the eight UN Millenium goals for 2015 that may not be met.

WIE is focused on the next generation of young, global women leaders and has sponsored a competition supporting global maternal health with seven finalists: Hadhya Yahya Mohammed Al-Zawm (WRA Yemen), Gloria Iribagiza (WRA Rwanda), Deepa Jha (WRA India), Jayshree Satpute (WRA India), Alberta Steven (WRA Tanzania), Christine Tumuhairwe (WRA Uganda), and Tracy Walakria (WRA Uganda). Read their biographies. 

The list of Symposium speakers at WIE includes (see complete list, now including Melinda Gates):

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