William E. Jones It Only Looks Like It Hurts

Lucian Freud is based upon a presumed self-portrait of Freud that hung in a Geneva apartment used by Francis Bacon and others for discreet sexual meetings. When the man who owned the apartment died, his effects were auctioned. The buyer of the painting (called Standing Male Nude) received a phone call from Freud, who offered to buy it from him, perhaps because he was embarrassed by proof of a youthful indiscretion. The new owner, who liked the painting, refused to sell, and Freud then angrily threatened to de-authenticate it so that it could not be sold at auction again. The ploy worked temporarily, but the owner hired experts to re-authenticate the painting after Freud’s death.

After Sorolla (Seated Youth) is based upon Academic Study from Life (1887) by Joaquín Sorolla, a Spanish Post-Impressionist painter who experienced prodigious success around the turn of the last century, especially in the United States, where he received many commissions. While the original has a subdued palette, mainly whites, beiges, and browns, I took liberties with the color and made a more vibrant painting.

Piet Mondrian is based upon a self-portrait photograph that he took in 1909, and I chose it because he looks like Jesus attempting to vogue. At that early date—Mondrian was 37—the painter had not yet abandoned figuration, though he had begun to restrict his color palette to primary colors. As if he is anticipating his later abstract paintings, he contorts his hands in imitation of a severe imaginary geometry. Mondrian later shaved off his beard, possibly to groom himself in keeping with the austerity of his life, but at the time this photograph was taken, he was still an early 20th century bohemian.

While most of my paintings were made “wet on wet” in the course of a single day, Two Nude Men evolved over a longer period. I worked on the background first, then once it was dry, painted the figures and blurred them. This created an effect slightly different from the other paintings.

Manacled Man is based upon a photo from a BDSM website, though the image is not pornographic at all. The subject is wearing shorts.

During the glory days of the New Romantics in London, jewelry designer Judy Blame did paying work under pseudonyms so as not to be thrown off the dole. Blame got his name from working at nightclub coat checks, where he would mischievously switch clubgoers’ coats because he thought they looked better on their new recipients, and he was not above stealing change from their pockets. When an incensed customer would lodge a complaint, club employees would point in his direction and shout, “Blame Judy!” (“Judy”—as in Garland—is old fashioned gay slang for a friend or compatriot, as in “She’s my best Judy.”) The painting Judy Blame shows him with a black eye in the aftermath of a gay bashing.

Collar and Duct Tape depicts a young man in the throes of an ecstatic sexual experience. The magenta floor on which the he lies is an invention. I chose a color that I thought would contrast well with the hues of flesh and metal. This painting suits the title It Only Looks As If It Hurts better than any other painting in the exhibition.

Man Shouting is based upon a social media post of a young man who could either be doing what the title says or having an orgasm. The original is a black and white photograph, and the mauve and purple background is invented, as I prefer.

Smoke Break shows two strapping young men, one completely naked, as they pause to smoke cigarettes on a balcony. I know nothing more about this scene. I can only guess that the location is a hotel, and they are students on spring break, or else are porn performers playing students on spring break.

After Warhol (Man Bound with Duct Tape) is based upon a Polaroid Warhol took, then signed with his first name. The man in the photo is anonymous. When identifying subjects and confirming attributions, I do reverse searches with Google Images, but this application is no longer working as it once was. A recent search for the source of this painting yielded the following message from Google: “This image can’t be processed due to content guidelines.”

Foot Worship made me realize that contemporary athletic shoes are subjects nearly as complex as human faces. The source is an anonymous social media post. Foot fetishists are particularly reverent in their activities, and their photographs often resemble paintings of religious rituals.

Male Nudes started as a painting based upon a sketch by Edgar Degas. I wasn’t satisfied with it, so I made a revision by painting a male nude figure in shades of blue on top of the original. The overpainting didn’t satisfy me either, so I painted yet another figure on top of it. The accumulation of layers of images suggesting multiple paintings superimposed on each other recalls Francis Picabia’s transparences. When Picabia’s unsold paintings returned from galleries, he would revise them, often building up several layered “transparent” compositions competing for the viewer’s attention.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Napping is based upon a 1983 photograph by Paige Powell, Basquiat’s girlfriend at the time, and shows the painter in an unguarded moment at the height of his fame. The Basquiat painting inspired me to look for images of other artists in the nude.

Blessed Boy Getting Fucked depicts my favorite contemporary porn star, a Brazilian living in Barcelona whose melodramatic facial expressions during sex are a constant source of amusement. Blessed Boy’s face is a minor part of this composition, but there are plenty of other interesting details to lead the viewer’s eye around the painting.

The model striking this demanding pose is probably not a professional performer, but merely making a selfie for a hookup app, OnlyFans, social media, or all of the above. I admire his flexibility, so I called the painting Contortionist.

The source photograph of Jackson Pollock is dubious. I saw it first on Instagram and sent a message to the owner of the account to get more information. He told me that the image appeared in a pdf of a French book. He no longer had the file and had forgotten the book’s title but had kept images from it. I could only evaluate the source photograph by looking at internal evidence. The balding head of the subject resembles that of Pollock, while his face is hidden by an arm. (I have discovered no testimony regarding the appearance of Pollock’s penis.) The studio in which the figure appears does not look like Pollock’s studio in Springs, New York, but he might have stripped off all his clothes in an earlier studio or at a friend’s studio. It is most likely to have been the latter, as the works of art visible in the source photograph bear no resemblance to Pollock’s work from any period I know. I decided to blur the paintings in the background into vague abstraction.