The Orientalist: 12 Works by John C. Kacere - (23 June 1920

Saturday, April 25, 2015

12 Works by John C. Kacere - (23 June 1920 – 5 August 1999)

John C. Kacere (23 June 1920 – 5 August 1999) was an American artist. Originally an Abstract-Expressionist, Kacere adopted a photorealist style in 1963. Nearly all of his photorealist paintings depict the midsection of the female body. He is considered one of the original photorealists, although he rejected the term.

Kacere painted his first photorealist painting in 1969 involving the midsection of a woman dressed in lingerie. It was over three times life size.^[3] Kacere continued this type of painting throughout the rest of his career, making it an icon of the photorealism movement.

Artist: John Kacere, American (1920 - 1999)
Title: Maija II
Year: 1977
Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 200, 50 APs
Size: 22 in. x 28 in. (55.88 cm x 71.12 cm)

In the early 1980s, he branched away from this theme and included the entire body of a woman in lingerie, but returned to his original midsection of the female body in 1988.^[3] Kacere's paintings are figurative but still can be considered still lifes or even landscapes. More

His style has influenced several pop artists from Michael English to Philip Castle, and later Hajime Sorayama. But it’s worth to mention the predecessors who inspired his technique: in terms of lighting and texture you can see John Kacere adopted a mix between Tamara de Lempicka and Edward Hopper, and a debt of gratitude for the beautifully rendered drapery goes to Renaissance’s masters such as Titian and Fra Angelico.

His childish obsession is for an idealized object of desire that is not a woman but a synecdoche, a plump but empty kind of beauty, enhanced by the sexy paraphrenalia of her attire.

The faceless portion of these pin ups reminds us of a table set before a banquet. No matter how much pop art can gain from kitsch (Jeff koons knows it too well) John Kacere’s paintings are splendid and he fully deserves an Extraordinart place. More

Kacere, who died in 1999, earned a second shot at artistic immortality in 2003 when director Sofia Coppola based the iconic opening sequence of Lost In Translation (showing Scarlett Johansson‘s backside in sheer peach panties) on Kacere’s style. (The cotton crêpe briefs used in the shot were created by a youngAraks Yeramyan, and have become an enduring bestseller for the New York lingerie and womenswear brand Araks.) More

Kacere has focused his work in the female body, and despite criticism from feminists, some of whom have labeled his work sexist, Kacere sees the woman as the source of life and praises the aspect of womanhood in each of his works. More