THE FAMILY / Ronnie Cutrone

 

As Andy Warhol's assistant at the Factory atop the Decker Building from 1972 until 1980, Cutrone (1948-2013) worked with Warhol on paintings, prints, films, and other concepts, eventually co-opting Warhol's earliest work (pre-1960) as well as works by Roy Lichtenstein and others, until finally distilling those myriad influences into the style a few critics eventually labeled "Post-Pop."

He exhibited at the Niveau Gallery in 1979 with a Scottish artist called Mike Gall who showed paintings of Snoopy, Mickey and Minnie mouse, the Pink Panther and also a small series of Peter Rabbit paintings. In this exhibition no evidence of the style the critics would call "Post-Pop" could be seen in Cutrone's work. Victor Hugo was the other artist who was featured in this three man group show which was called "Three New New York Artists".

Together with Kenny Scharf, Cutrone revived the comic strip in painting. By using established comic characters such as Woody Woodpecker and Felix the Cat, Cutrone rephrased themes of originality and authorship, and of low-brow taste and fine art which makes him directly indebted to Pop Art of early Sixties. His use of bright and fluorescent colours encouraged Andy Warhol’s return to such hues of heightened artificiality.

"Everything is a cartoon for me," Ronnie Cutrone says. "The ancient manuscripts are taken very seriously but they really are cartoons."