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In his paintings, Ken Aptekar takes on the roles of storyteller, historian, and biographer. Aptekar's work incorporates an evocative blend of images from Old Master paintings and narrative text, through which he addresses many questions about faith, family, identity, and judgment.
Aptekar borrows, or appropriates, images from some Western art history's best-known paintings, including those by Rembrandt, El Greco, Raphael, and Manet. He then combines them with narratives that he sandblasts onto thick glass panels and literally bolts over his paintings.
Many of Aptekar's works are autobiographical, including I'm six year's old and hiding behind my hands, 1996.
The text retells his memory of his mother encouraging medicine over her son's artistic talents. In other works, Aptekar examines ideas of faith, particularly that of Judaism and Jewish identity and culture.
This ten-year survey exhibition was organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and features thirty paintings by the New York- and Paris-based artist. The accompanying exhibition catalogue includes color plates of all the works in the exhibition and essays by: Dana Self, Kemper Museum and Aptekar exhibition curator; Linda Nochlin, New York University Institute of Fine Arts; and H. Aram Veeser, City College of the City University of New York.
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