Cecily Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cecily Brown, born 1969 in London, is a British painter. Her style displays the influences of Francisco de Goya, Nicolas Poussin, Willem de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell while incorporating into her works her distinct female view point.[1] Brown lives and works in New York City.[2]

Early life and education

Cecily Brown is the daughter of novelist Shena Mackay and art critic David Sylvester.[3]

She studied B.Tech Diploma in Art and Design at Epsom School of Art, Surrey, England (1985–1987), drawing and printmaking classes, Morley College, London, 1987–1989, and BA in Fine Arts, Slade School of Art, London (1989–93). During her studies, she worked as a waitress and later in an animation studio.[4]

Work

Cecily Brown is often seen as part of one of several leading female contemporary painters, a group which also includes Charline von Heyl, Jacqueline Humphries, Laura Owens, Jutta Koether, Amy Sillman, and Emily Sundblad.[5] Brown's work combines representational and abstract elements in sensual depictions of expressive figures and nudes. The sexuality and eroticism of Brown's themes is echoed in the rich colors, luscious painting handling and animated brushwork. The tactility of her technique stands out among her contemporaries and links her to the heritage of the Abstract Expressionists. Self conscious of her connection with artists such as Willem de Kooning and Lucian Freud, Brown's work, however, interjects a fresh sense of humor or irony by titling her paintings after the names of famous musicals and films.

Biography

Brown was born in London, England, in 1969. She studied at the Slade School of Art, London, where she earned at B.A. in 1993. In addition to studying painting, Brown also studied printmaking and draftsmanship. Her work is included in numerous public collections through out the United States. There collections included the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, both in New York, and the Tate Gallery, in London. Solo exhibitions include "Directions: Cecily Brown," at the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2002); MACRO, Rome (2003); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2004); Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (2005); Kunsthalle Mannheim (2005-06); Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2006); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2006-07); Deichtorhalle, Hamburg (2009); "Based on a True Story," GEM, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Haugue (2010 and traveled to Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover); Essel Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2012). Brown currently lives in New York.


Painting

Brown's paintings combine figuration and abstraction. Expanding the tradition of abstract expressionism, she has become known for her painting style suggestive of abstract and abstract expressionist painters such as de Kooning and Oskar Kokoschka. Sexuality and attraction are important themes in her work, which she explores through semi-figurative and abstract means. Her paintings also recall the works of Philip Guston and the Bay Area Figurative School of the 1950s and 1960s. Brown often titles her paintings after classic Hollywood films, such as The Pyjama Game, The Bedtime Story and The Fugitive Kind. In 2013, Brown based a series of paintings on a photograph of a large group of nude women that appeared on the British release of a 1968 Jimi Hendrix album.[6]

In 1997, Brown created Untitled, a permanent, site-specific installation for the group exhibition Vertical Paintings at P.S. 1.[7]

In the media

In the February 2000 edition of Vanity Fair, Brown, along with fellow artists Inka Essenhigh, John Currin and others, appeared in full-color photographs taken by Todd Eberle. A photograph that appeared in The New Yorker made showed Brown from the back as she stood, cigarette in hand, studying one of her paintings.[8]

In 2004, Brown presided, along with other artists like Laura Owens and Elizabeth Peyton, over a Democratic fund-raising event, Art Works for Hard Money, in Los Angeles.[9]

Critical reception

Brown has received a lot of critical attention for powerful, athletically-sized canvases and bold brushwork. The assertiveness of her paintings has often been compared to Abstract Expressionist works which, during their time, were linked to a fierce masculinity. As a female artist working in this vein, Brown's works have been seen as confronting both this tradition and gendered assumptions about art. However, some recent critics have taken a different stance. In 2011 review for The Guardian, art critic Adrian Searle rejected the dynamic and assertive surfaces of Brown's art and wrote: "What's really missing in her art is character, and for all the hectic painting, a sense of necessity." Likewise, in 2013, Leah Ollman wrote a review of a Gagosian Gallery show for The LA Times, in which she observed: "Instead of powerful and passionate, her voice comes across as detached. The volume is turned up, but the verve is on low."

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include “Directions: Cecily Brown,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2002); MACRO, Rome (2003); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2004); Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (2005); Kunsthalle Mannheim (2005–06); Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2006); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2006–07); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2009); “Based on a True Story,” GEM, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague (2010, traveled to Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover); Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria (2012).[10] Her work has appeared at the Whitney Biennial 2004 in New York,[11] The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery, London and “Greater New York” at P.S. 1, New York.

Brown is represented by Gagosian Gallery and Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin. She previously showed with Deitch Projects.[12]

Collections

Brown's work has attracted the attention of private art collectors including Elton John and Michael Ovitz. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of several important museums and institutions including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo, New York and the Des Moines Art Center, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Private life

Brown relocated to New York from London in 1995.[13] Since 2011, she has been working from a studio at a former office near Union Square. Before that, she maintained a studio in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Cecily Brown at Boston's MFA, ARTINFO, December 5, 2006, retrieved 2008-04-17 
  2. ↑ Karen Wright (November 29, 2013), In the studio: Cecily Brown, Painter The Independent.
  3. ↑ http://www.artcritical.com/DavidCohen/SUN89.htm review accessed online June 1, 2007
  4. ↑ Karen Wright (November 29, 2013), In the studio: Cecily Brown, Painter The Independent.
  5. ↑ Diane Solway (August 19, 2013), Charline von Heyl: In the Abstract W.
  6. ↑ Leah Ollman (September 26, 2013), Review: Cecily Brown's paintings do not disturb Los Angeles Times.
  7. ↑ Cecily Brown P.S. 1, New York.
  8. ↑ Roberta Smith (July 5, 2000), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman; Glossy Images That Both Mimic and Mock Male Sexuaility New York Times.
  9. ↑ Alex Williams (July 4, 2004), Cutting Edge In the Arts Now Is Joining a PAC New York Times.
  10. ↑ Cecily Brown Gagosian Gallery.
  11. ↑ Richard Lacayo, "Art: Major Art Attack," TIme, March 29, 2004
  12. ↑ Roberta Smith (December 23, 2003), Art World Startled as Painter Switches Dealers New York Times.
  13. ↑ Roberta Smith (January 21, 2000), ART IN REVIEW; Cecily Brown New York Times.
  14. ↑ Karen Wright (November 29, 2013), In the studio: Cecily Brown, Painter The Independent.

External links

Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.