DON’T STOP, Wasserman Projects (web link here), Detroit, Michigan

Living in both Paris and New York, I have been lucky to experience the cultures of Europe and America with the perspective of an outsider. When I am in Paris, I see life there as an American who was born in Detroit and has lived for 40 years in New York. Back in the States, I look through the lens of the last 15 years of living more in Paris than in New York.
The digitally produced works in this series, DON’T STOP, developed out of a desire to reconcile two important differences between life in the two countries. France, the oldest country in Europe, has had kings in charge for most of its existence. Even though it became a republic after the French Revolution, its culture is steeped in its royal origins. Life in France is marked by class, highly developed codes of behavior, easy sensuality, significant state art patronage, refined taste, and strong federal government.
In contrast Americans regard class difference with skepticism if not denial, and privilege as nothing more than a lucky break. In the US we feel we can become anybody we want unhindered by our family’s past, our race or personal history or gender. State support of the arts is deemed a luxury we can’t afford. And finally government in America is a constant battle between State and Federal positions.
I tried to mash up these differences in my series, DON’T STOP. Fifteen large glossy pictures set democratic American pleasure-taking–DISCO!–against princely French refinement.
Ken Aptekar, 2013



After Jean Clouet, Elisabeth d’Autriche, 1570, Paris, Louvre; Atelier de Francois Clouet, Henri II, King of France (standing with gold color), Paris, Louvre; Jean Clouet, (1480-1540-1541), Portrait of Francois 1, King of France, c. 1530, Paris, Louvre; Atelier of Francois Clouet, Francois Hercules de France, Paris, Louvre; Ecole Francaise, XVI siècle, Diane de France, (1538-1619) Duchess of Angoulême, (natural daughter of Henri II), Paris, Musee de Carnevalet; attributed to Leonard Limousin, the Dauphin and future Francois II, (enamel on copper); c. 1553, Paris, Louvre; TEXT: “We Are Family,” Bernard Edwards & Nile Rodgers, 1979, on album by Sister Sledge, “We Are Family”

After Jan Davidsz. De Heem, (1606-1683-4), Fruits et riche vaisselle sur une table (“Fruits and deluxe serving pieces on a table”), 1640, Paris, Louvre; TEXT: “The More I Get The More I Want,” Victor Carstarphen, Gene McFadden, & John Whitehead, 1977, on album, “Teddy Prendergrass”







After Joseph Siffrede Duplessis (1725-1802), Louis XVI en costume de sacre, Paris, musee de Carnevalet; TEXT: “Won’t You Take Me To Funky Town,” Steven Greenberg, 1979, on the Lipps Inc. album, “Mouth to Mouth”




