Draw Me Like These French Girls: The Cubist Intimacies of Louis Fratino

Louis Fratino (b. 1993) is an American painter and sculptor with Italian roots whose works are influenced by the oeuvres of modernist masters like Picasso and Matisse. Doing an homage to the creators of Guernica and Dance, Fratino uses a recognizable manner and plays with perspective and shape, depicting the intimate moments of his homosexual life.

Fig. 1. Me (brooklynrail.org)

Fig. 2. Sitting on your lap, 2019 (artsy.com)

Fig. 3. Metropolitan, 2019 (brooklynrail.org)

Fig. 4. Pit Stop, 2016 (mutualart.com)

Fig. 5. Morning (sikkemajenkinsco.com)

Fig. 6. Tristan in the Bath (conceptualfinearts.com)

Fig. 7. Star Nude (officemagazine.net)

Fig. 8. Tristan Drinking Soup, 2017 (mutualart.com)

Fig. 9. Tom at Riis Beach wearing my underwear around his neck, 2019 (sikkemajenkinsco.com)

Fig. 10. Spiral, 2019 (sikkemajenkinsco.com)

Curriculum Vitae

This prolific artist started participating in group shows in 2014 while studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2015, he attained a BFA in painting, and the following year, underwent the Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting and Printmaking in Berlin. In 2017, Fratino returned to NY, where he resides now. His first solo show REASONS: Works by Louis Fratino was held at the Platform Gallery in Baltimore in 2016. The recent exhibition In Bed and Abroad happened at Sikkema Jenkins & Co gallery in October/December 2023.

Fig. 11. Man in Front of a Tree Trunk, 2018 (robertfontainegallery.com)

Fig. 12. Man in the Weeds after Ivan Prescott, 2017 (mutualart.com)

Fig. 13. After Ivan Prescott (mutualart.com)

Fig. 14. After Bronzino (artnet.com)

Fig. 15. Wet Lonely Morning (mutualart.com)

In Art and at Home

Though in Fratino's portfolio, there is no remake of the famous  Young Ladies of Avignon to which we refer in our heading, the key feature of this young painter is reimagining the composition of modernists, which includes gender switch. Fratino depicts his close circle of family, lovers, and friends as the cubist figures he sees on the museum walls; thus, his deeply personal experience of an openly gay artist becomes a part of the existing tradition. Projecting what he is surrounded by onto a canvas, the artist, though acts differently from Oscar Wilde, reaches the point at which his art and life merge.

Fig. 16. Azul Couch, Alessandro, 2021 (artsy.com)

In the extended Premium edition you can find more on Fratino's subtle references to Edward Hopper, Plato's Symposium, and the similarities to classical shunga art and the artist Hokusai in particular. Furthermore, you can enjoy many additional pics (including the artist's sculptures).

Click HERE for 28 of the kinkiest gay fetishes by Michael Kirwan

Sources: sikkemajenkinsco.com/louis-fratino; Stefano Pirovano. Rising Artists to Watch: Louis Fratino (conceptualfinearts.com)

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