This book was published on the occasion of John Currin at Casa Malaparte, a one-night-only exhibition in July 2024 at Casa Malaparte, the famous cliffside house built on the Italian island of Capri by Curzio Malaparte (the pseudonym of Kurt Erich Suckert), a provocative writer, editor, and intellectual active in the Italian literary and artistic avant-garde. The exhibition featured paintings of female figures, domestic interiors, and vintage tableware, as well as two portraits on paper. As ever, Currin employs classical painting techniques, introducing juxtapositions and exaggerations that echo the distorting effects of social convention, power, and bodily decay, holding the beautiful and the grotesque in perfect balance.

In addition to color plates, details, and installation views of the eleven exhibited works, the catalogue features eleven monochromatic drawings of women in bed that constitute studies for the exhibition’s figure paintings. It also includes “Eternity,” a short story by Emma Cline that draws on the resonance of Casa Malaparte’s extraordinary site, and “A Realist of the Incredible,” an essay by Carlo Falciani that traces the art historical sources of Currin’s work in the context of Curzio Malaparte’s own creative vision.