Mark T. Stockton

Poised, 2007, 1983 series, charcoal on acid free paper, 108" x 72",

Madonna I (After Lee Friedlander), 2008, 6” x 4", graphite on 26" x 20" BFK Rives

Mr. Olympia (small), 2008, 1974 series, 9", graphite on 26" x 20" BFK Rives

Last year, Mark T. Stockton was gracious enough to participate in my show, Perfect Strangers Daily Operation. I’ve been keeping up with his work on his website and noticed some new gems. I'm not often drawn to work dealing with celebrities, but Stockton's drawings have something good going on. They are more about the former lives of the stars and how their new lives contrast with the original context of the photos; Tom Cruise as a teen idol on the cusp of stardom, Madonna as a struggling artist’s model, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as a championship bodybuilder.

One of the original Lee Friedlander photographs of his Madonna group, from which Stockton's Madonna I after Friedlander comes, is actually now up for auction at Christie's. Check out his Madonna and others in an upcoming at exhibition titled, Drawing in the World, at UArts in Philadelphia. It will be on view from January 22 - February 22. The reception is February 6, 5pm -8pm. There will also a lecture by James Elkins "Can Drawings Think?" on January 27 and a panel with John Yau on February 4.