Ken Aptekar Painting Between the Lines, 1990-2000

Ken Aptekar's paintings examine Jewishness, masculinity, autobiography, identity, and the slippery history of art. By appropriating paintings from Western art history, repainting them on wood panels, and covering them with sandblasted texts that include witty and poignant autobiography, Aptekar amplifies and extends art history's discursive dialogue.This volume examines this mid-career artist's work for the past ten years, unravelling the stories that knit together the narrative character of Aptekar's work. Over the past ten years, Aptekar's text-on-glass has changed from a single word or short phrases to anecdotes exploring the myriad guises that constitute a complex individual. Stories of his family and solicited responses from viewers merge with the histories embedded in the images Aptekar uses as source paintings. Aptekar lives in New York City and Paris.Juxtaposing compelling narrative with imagery borrowed from art history's most-established and revered figures, Aptekar creates emotionally intimate, yet broadly accessible paintings. Aptekar's confessional colloquy with artists such as Rembrandt, El Greco, Manet, and Boucher; his family, museum-goers, and himself, provides the paintings' personal and emotional plenitude that expands the domain of interpretive possibilities.