The Modern Affair

'The Modern Affair' was a solo exhibition of paintings at Amangansett Applied Arts, Amangansett, New York, USA, accompanied by a 26 page illustrated catalogue with essay by Randolph Lerner.

The paintings were the result of a studio based painting project, started in 2000 and completed in July 2003, executed in the USA. The outcome was a one person exhibition of large scale oil paintings made from drawings of the interiors of North American art galleries: The Frick, The Metropolitan Museum and M.O.M.A.

This exhibition of paintings about painting is part of a bigger ongoing project in which Farthing is engaged, examining the viability of painting as a vehicle for combining primary and apparently distracting information to generate a likeness. The exhibition included ten paintings, each taking a well-known painting hung in its unique gallery setting as its subject matter. The aim was to throw light on the specific conditions of “the hang” and to demonstrate the degree to which local conditions, affect our reception of that painting. When for example a painting of slices of cake by Wayne Thiebaud is hung near to a Marcel Breuers window at the Whitney, meaning is accumulated by their proximity; when a painting is gallery lit, new passages of meaning are often added. The exhibition and catalogue turn these accidents into facts.