Customer Reviews

Masters in Pieces the Art of Russell Con

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Beneath the facade of Art-talker, museum director and starving artist (in early years), Russell Connor has a wicked wit, a gifted mind and is a supreme painter. In "Masters in Pieces", a collection of his works, he juxtaposes magnificant copies of paintings by different artists, even different eras on the same canvas with glee. Imagine Manet and Goya on the same canvas, as "The Spanish Visitors," and you get the gist. Elements of Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" and Gauguin's "Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms" appear to Connor's world as "Club Tahiti."

His is an exercise in intellect and art, asking us to override all the art cliches and art history in our mind, and look at things differently.

In addition to the more classical canvases, Connor has also created a number of shirts with messages for our times (an illustration from Picasso's "Guernica" on a Right-to-Life shirt or Raphael's "Madonna and Child" on a Planned Parenthood shirt.)

Iconoclast to many, Russell's hijacking of the masters tweaks our mind, tests our wit, always just short of "STOP THIEF!"

What shines thru is his "mastery of the artist." His are skilled reproductions of the Masters, albeit a bit rearranged. While he describes himself as a "pirate," he is truly "an artist of his own time."

This published collection is well worth owning and sharing; it will provoke lively discussion.