HAARLEM.- From 7 October 2011 to 8 January 2012, the Frans Hals Museum is presenting paintings by John Currin (1962) in an encounter with the work of Cornelis van Haarlem (1562 – 1638). The American artist John Currin is well known for his realistic paintings in which commonplace scenes alternate with explicitly erotic images. Solo exhibitions of Currin’s work have been staged in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Serpentine Gallery in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In the ‘Conversation Piece’ series, the Frans Hals Museum would like to present the collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth century paintings in a new light. Currin is very interested in the realistic painting technique and the Mannerist ideal of beauty of the Northern Renaissance. In his work, which is executed with immense technical skill, he addresses both social and provocative-