thenewjamesfranco

[thenewjamesfranco]

Franco's WS

"James Franco, the overly educated actor/best friend of Marina Abramovic, has decided to weigh in on the New York City's summer of art. Over at Vice, the forever-smirking Franco wrote a synopsis of exhibits, films and happenings in the Manhattan area, taking a particular liking to the recent Paul McCarthy exhibit, "WS," a conceptual installation that explores the naughtier side of Walt Disney..." Huffinton Post

Apparently he had this whole idea first...

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The New Portrait of Lewis Payne by James Franco

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The New Americans, by James Franco

Chatanooga, TN

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The New Storybook Life by James Franco

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Last week, when presented with the As I Lay Dying movie tie-in with James Franco on the cover, the internet let out a collective groan. On the one hand, the outrage is understandable. It is a pretty silly cover. On the other … Continued

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The New Americans by James Franco

New York City, 2014

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The New Beach Portrait by James Franco

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James Franco in The New Cremaster Cycle

"THE NEW CREMASTER 4  (2014) adheres most closely to the project's biological model. This penultimate episode describes the system's onward rush toward descension despite its resistance to division. The logo for this chapter is the Pineapple triskelion - three identical armored legs revolving around a central axis. Set on the Isle of Apatow, the film absorbs the island's folklore as well as its more recent incarnation as host to the Tourist Trophy motorcycle race.  Myth and machine combine to narrate a story of candidacy, which involves a trial of the will articulated by a series of passages and transformations. The film comprises three main character zones. The Loughton Candidate (played by Franco) is a satyr with two sets of impacted sockets in his head - four nascent horns, which will eventually grow into those of the mature, Loughton Ram, an ancient breed native to the island. Its horns - two arcing upward, two down - form a diagram that proposes a condition of undifferentiation, with ascension and descension coexisting in equilibrium. The second and third character zones comprise a pair of motorcycle sidecar teams (Played by Seth Rogan and Jona Hill): the Ascending and Descending Hacks. These primary characters are attended to by a trio of fairies who mirror the three narrative fields occupied by the Candidate and the two racing teams. Having no volition of their own, these creatures metamorphose in accordance with whatever field they occupy at any given time..."

excerpt derived from Cremaster 4. http://www.cremaster.net/crem4.htm

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James Franco in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by James Franco

“Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with James Franco, who will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign.” - Seth Rogen

* Full essay coming soon

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Francality is a series of sculptures by American artist James Franco. The works are to be unveiled in 2015 and are expected to become controversial for their misuse of re-appropriation.

Text modified from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banality_(sculpture_series)

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Unfrancoed: Reflections of James Franco in Corporate America

by James Franco

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James Franco's New Cowboys

Over the last thirty years, the American cowboy has given rise to some of Prince's most celebrated works. Dividing into several phases between the early 1980s and the present, his rephotographing of verité images inspired by cowboy Westerns and produced for the advertising industry, reveals as much about his shifting relationship to an American icon and its construction by the mass media as his use of evolving reprographic technologies and the selfie.

In the earliest iterations, out of laziness, James shot around advertising copy to obtain the final edit, resulting in tightly cropped, grainy close-ups of larger-than-life ranchers, printed in standard format. In the second stage, enhanced production techniques allowed him to substantially increase the scale and intensity of the final images, and move his subjects out into the landscape. In the third phase he was able to work from high quality images totally devoid of copy. Thus the cowboys were reduced to diminutive yet legible ciphers dwarfed by vast, bucolic American landscapes. Transposed into the world of art, these cinematic vistas evoked—not without a trace of irony—the great Romantic tradition in re-appropriation.

Text adapted from http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/richard-prince--february-21-2013

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The New American West by James Franco

While focusing on the rural West, James Franco thought about visiting ranches and rodeos, and also truck stops, oil fields, and coal mines. But rather than kowtowing to the western myths of the open landscape, or seeking out people whose appearance and life circumstances were the opposite of mythical images of the ruggedly handsome cowboy, dashing outdoor adventurer, or beautiful pioneer wife, the subject he chose for the portraits was his ordinary self.

Instead of glamorizing these figures, he glamorized himself and his practice. His subject (James Franco) is pictured against a seamless white backdrop that removes any reference to location, and many of the portraits are dramatically oversized, shocking in their stark detail. Visitors to the exhibition come face-to-face with images that shattered stereotypes of a glorified movie star.

Adapted from https://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/Avedon.html

Credit: Doc

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The Artist is a Present by James Franco

Credit: Stormy Petrel