John Kacere (1920 - 1999) occupies a unique place in the twentieth century American art. Though he is often grouped with the artists of Hyperrealism because he uses the photorealistic approach, his choice of motifs to paint is unlike that of the Hyperrealist painters. Whereas they focused their artistic gaze on cars, neon signs, city streets; all symbols of the post-war consumer culture, Kacere’s vision was distinctly intimate and sensual because he focused on painting the female body, more precisely the midsection of the female body clad in silky lingerie. We don’t know the faces of Kacere’s half-naked beauties, but we do know their names because the paintings often bear the name of the young woman who posed for it: Oksana, Debbie, Marianne, to name a few. Kacere’s canvases resist easy classification as either pornography or simple sensuality. They stand instead in an ambiguous, fascinating space: where realism becomes abstraction, and where the erotic becomes both intimate and monumental.
Fig.1 John Kacere, Valerie II, 1989
Fig.2 John Kacere, Kelly, 1993
Fig.3 John Kacere, Pat, 1991
Deeply Intimate
Kacere’s paintings are always cropped: torsos without faces and hips without full bodies. This form of partiality is crucial to analysing his art vision. By removing the individuality of his subjects, he universalises them into an archetype; the eroticised female form, rendered as art object. Yet at the same time, the hyperrealism of his technique intensifies the physicality of the skin, the satin, the lace. Every fold of fabric and every subtle tension of flesh is amplified until it demands the viewer’s gaze with an almost devotional force. The effect is paradoxical: both deeply intimate and strangely distant.
Fig.4 John Kacere, Oksana, 1994
Fig.5 John Kacere, Julia, 1989
Fig.6 John Kacere, Pencil Study, 1983
Prolonged Attention
Unlike the glossy speed of advertising, Kacere’s brushwork insists on slowness. While looking at his paintings one might thing that it is easy to paint that because the scenes are simple in composition and not that detailed also, but to paint at this level of detail is an act of prolonged attention. If we look at a drawing in Fig.6. we can see just how well-drawn and detailed it is. This drawing is probably sketch for the painting ‘Julia’ in Fig.5., although these two artworks were made six years apart.
Fig.7 John Kacere, Joanne, 1979
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