Cecily Brown

Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in March 2006

Waterville, Colby College, Contemporary Painting, June - September 2004

This work is in excellent condition overall. There is evidence of slight wear and handling around the edges. Otherwise, there are no apparent condition problems with this work. Under ultra violet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Unframed.
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At a time when painting had been declared dead and the Young British Artist's were taking over the 1990s London art scene, it seemed like painting could not have the same thrilling impact and shock value that video and installation could. At 25, fresh out of the Slade Arts School in London, Cecily Brown moved away with the desire to take her chances painting in New York, "In a way, it was nice to stand alone as a painter," (Gary Wood, "Cecily Brown: I like the cheap and nasty," The Observer, June 12, 2005, p. 1).

 

As an artist Brown has tremendous respect for the medium of paint, constantly challenging and pushing herself to new levels. A master of color and brushstroke she is best known for her highly painterly, expressive and sexually charged oil paintings. Willem de Kooning once declared that flesh was the reason painting was invented. In her words, echoing the canons of her Abstract Expressionist predecessors, "what I wanted...was for the paint to embody the same sensations that bodies would. Oil paint very easily suggests bodily fluids and flesh," (Ibid). Through thick impasto and vivid colors Brown's luscious canvases hum with energy and physicality that make figures and forms come alive.

 

Cecily Brown, an artist who deftly navigates the precarious balance between past and present, herself has stated, "It sounds disingenuous but I don't really think of the art of the past as distant. If you go into a museum, it's there today. One of the things I love is the freedom of having all these artists in your head side by side..." (Ibid). Figures in a Garden, elegant in its wistful blues and greens, teems with sensuality; its patches of ripe pink and red pulsating throughout the canvas. A marriage of figuration, reminiscent of Nicolas Poussin's Spring, or The Garden of Eden, and abstraction, the present work epitomizes the artist's love affair with her medium and her irrevocable bond with art history.