The realist painter eschews explicit sex in a new solo show, but refers backwards to earlier tropes of subordination.

Not just another color: grisaille in historically diverse show

Paint Made Flesh at the Phillips Collection, and other shows this summer, reveal a love affair between a material painters use and the material all of us are.

Wishing our readers a happy Thanksgiving.

Zwirner & Wirth 32 East 69 Street New York City 212 517 8677 June 27 to August 31 Zwirner & Wirth’s “Old School” explores a tantalizing mega-generational gap: the divide between sixteenth- and seventeenth-century paintings and our postmodernist counterparts. Nearly thirty landscapes, still lifes and figure paintings by old masters and contemporary artists make for … Continued

until December 22 980 Madison Ave., between 76th and 77th streets, 212-744-2313 John Currin’s new show draws a sharp distinction between sex and sexiness. There is more explicit erotic action on view than in any images hitherto by this avid courter of controversy, and there is sexy paintwork to boot. But, instructively, you don’t find … Continued

John Currin at Gagosian, Lucian Freud at Acquavella, Maureen Gallace at 303, Marilyn Minter at 94 and Fiona Rae at PaceWildenstein

IDOLS OF PERVERSITY Bellwether until August 6 134 Tenth Avenue, at 19 Street, 212-929-5959 AUGUSTIN FERNANDEZ Mitchell Algus until July 16 511 W. 25th Street, 212-242-6242 GOOD VIBRATIONS McKenzie until July 30 511 W. 25th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, 212-989-5467 The Pre-Raphaelites still have a lot to answer for. The cult of wan Ophelias, … Continued

Yale professors are telling their students that John Currin paints as well as Botticelli. I heard this yesterday from a young painter who was sent my way for career advice. Yale has probably the most illustrious art school in America. Its alumni litter the firmament; Currin (who was born in 1962 and is the hottest ticket this season) is only the most recent ascendant star.