ArtPress

We know the photos of Richard Kern (born 1954) well, obviously because they’ve been regularly shown at the Jousse gallery, but especially because of his books, New York Girls and Model Release, both published by Taschen. Yet this artist has never had a major exhibition in France before. Now-that’s been rectified with this retrospective organized by the magazine Uovo (1) and Jerome Sans. Does this mean that the Palais de Tokyo is finally adopting a new orientation? It’s already being bruited about that there doesn’t seem to be much difference between these pictures and what  [makes] an image interesting. For that they need “good reasons,” like modernism, for example. OK, let’s find some good reasons. How about composition? How can you not notice the originality of this picture of a young woman with her legs spread wide reduced to a head sitting on a crotch by the angle it was shot from? Or content: how can you not be moved by these young women with a lost look in their eyes, their anxiety reaching its heights with a brunette who’s pressing a steak against an eye we’re sure is swollen? In the skin flicks nothing is ever out of place; the whole thing is based on an illusion of perfection. There’s almost always some disturb­ing detail in Kern’s photos: a girl brushing her teeth, another floss­ing the first girl’s teeth and a third, in a very explicit gesture, doing a deep throat with a gun barrel. But what most makes these photos different from the classical maga­zine pics is once again the question of desire. The lad mag photos are not really, sexy at all because they always cling entirely to corny stereo­types and never deviate an inch from them, just like icon painters. Kern’s photos, like those of Roy Stuart (see art press no. 303) radiate sensuality, overflow with a primitive, animal sexual energy, precisely because they were made by an artist (and not a “porno bureaucrat”) who infuses his photos with his fantasies or at least makes us believe he does. Apparently Kern has a thing for open-crotch pantyhose.
Along with the photos you could also see the films the artist made in New York during the 1980s, when he shot the edgiest underground stars of that time, such as Nick Zedd and Lydia Lunch. The footage is funny and well served by remark­able soundtracks by Sonic Youth and Killdozer. Describing these shorts where sex gets mixed with the goriest grand guignol, Kern has written, “For me, making these movies is like dropping a great big smelly turd in the middle of the street, standing back and watching the people marvel at it.” One of the most memorable is My Nightmare, in which he shows himself lying in bed masturbating while thinking of a model (played by Susan McNa­mara) with whom he indulges in wild erotic games. As soon as he ejaculates (back to reality!), he quickly wipes his hands on his pants and opens the door to greet the young woman of his fantasies. But things don’t go as planned at all. The minute he gropes her behind as she poses for a photo, she slaps him and angrily ends it, storming out the door. Is My Nightmare an excellent metaphor for the rela­tionship between the photographer and his model and the fantasies most people imagine going on at porno shoots? Whatever. Kern has chosen just the right profession.

Richard Leydier Translation, L-S Torgoff

(1)  In its eighth issue the magazine Uovo publishes an interview with Kern along with a special section of his most recent photos.