Cecily Brown

Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Berlin, Contemporary Fine Arts, Cecily Brown, 2010

The Hague, GEM Museum voor Actuele Kunst; Hannover, Kestner Gesellschaft, Cecily Brown: Based on a True Story, 2010-11, pp. 11, 24-25, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the greens are brighter and more vibrant in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Pulsating with energy and exuding an impression of visceral strength, Bandit is a strikingly impressive example of Cecily Brown’s mature work. Composed of powerful, overlapping sweeps of pigment, Bandit hovers dramatically between the boundaries of abstraction and figuration whilst refusing to conform to the traditional perceptions of either concept. Amidst the seething chromatic maelstrom of brushstrokes, human elements can be discerned: suggestions of legs and arms picked out in warm flesh tones. This dichotomy between figural suggestion and total non-objectivity alongside the dynamic application of the brushstrokes, ensures that the composition projects a sense of extraordinary vitality and animation; a sensation further magnified by the painting’s impressive scale.

The inspiration for Bandit can be seen to have arisen from one of Edgar Degas’ earliest works, Young Spartans Exercising, created circa 1860, which resides in the National Gallery in London.  Differing in style from Degas’ later paintings of Parisian life, Young Spartans Exercising addresses a historical, quasi-mythological subject, depicting the youth of Sparta engaging in sporting contests, glorying unabashedly in their nakedness. Indeed, the strong vertical thrusts of the paint surface at the centre of Bandit, contrasting with the horizontal streaks of colour at the edges of canvas, recall the elegantly wrought composition of Degas’ work, in which the upright bodies of the athletes complement the sweep of the landscape. The result is an unashamedly contemporary re-imagining of the original image delivered through Brown’s remarkably distinctive and assured creative language.

Although Cecily Brown was born and studied in England, it was in New York that she encountered an atmosphere which proved extraordinarily conducive to artistic creation. Brown recalled the impact of this fiercely urban environment on her work in a recent interview: “Being a sort of old-fashioned painter, I didn’t feel hip enough for London. Here, the art world was so much bigger. There was more room for different kinds of work… One of the reasons I was so attracted to New York was that it struck a chord, the physicality of it and the energy” (the artist cited in: Hossein Amirsadeghi and Maryam Homayoun Eisler, Eds., Sanctuary: Britain’s Artists and their Studios, London 2011, pp. 34-39). This concept of ‘physicality’ is reflected within the vigorous brushwork of Bandit, with the swirling currents of paint recalling the movement of myriad figures hurrying through a metropolis.

Bandit reveals many of the diverse inspirations and stylistic influences that have been of key importance throughout Brown’s career to date. Aside from the dynamic vigour of the painterly style, which arguably hints at the frenetic pace of city life, Bandit pays homage to the techniques and styles of the Abstract Expressionists, especially those of Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock. Brown considers the late 1940s to be one of the most important periods of Twentieth Century artistic development: “If I had to place where it all comes from, the moment that interests me the most in twentieth century painting… is the moment when Rothko, Gorky and Newman were doing those bio-morphic things that just hovered on the edge of representation. They’re not quite abstract and they are absolutely grounded in the figure” (the artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, Oxford, Modern Art Oxford, Cecily Brown Paintings, 2005, pp. 52-53). The latter statement could be applied equally to Brown’s own canvases, in which figural elements emerge from a seemingly abstract melée on closer inspection.

The study of Old Master painting has also been a cornerstone of Brown’s practice and the artist has spoken in particular of her interest in the way in which sexuality was expressed within earlier painting: “Sex has always been one of the great subjects, beginning with Titian or Bosch or even earlier. One of the things I love about the Old Masters is the way they had to deal with it because they couldn’t do it directly. People focus on the sex in my work, but it’s just there and part of life like everything else” (the artist cited in: Op. cit., p. 36). Bandit draws together this diverse and eclectic range of influences to forge a work of immense complexity and breadth that superbly encapsulates the core essence of Brown’s distinctive painterly style.