Giovanni Bragolin, author of the so-called "Crying Boys" paintings had allegedly made a pact with the devil. So the first thing that came to our mind, when seeing these these amazing and somewhat disturbing canvases by New York based young Israeli artist Nir Hod, was: is he (=Bragolin) back??? Guess we'll have to send our blood brother Geoffrey to investigate this topic further during Nir's upcoming solo at Paul Kasmin.
There is, in our eyes, a lot in common between the "crying boys" and these "geniuses" and we are pretty jealous! As great admirers of Bragolin, we made an artwork couple of years ago, called the Bragolin Files, which involved 4 of Bragolin's paintings, a fireproof glass and the 'fireplace' video. We also made an attempt on repainting one Crying Boy, but this so far remained an unrealized project. To be honest 'though, the urge to finish is suddenly coming back ;-).