塞西麗·布朗

高古軒畫廊，紐約
喬恩·韋弗，布盧姆菲爾德希斯
紐約富藝斯，2009年5月14日，拍品編號14
私人收藏，歐洲（購自上述拍賣）
紐約蘇富比，2010年5月12日，拍品編號38（由上述藏家委託）
現藏家購自上述拍賣

紐約，高古軒畫廊，〈塞西麗·布朗〉，2000年1月-2月，品號23，載彩圖

德梅因，德梅因藝術中心；波士頓，美術館，〈塞西麗·布朗〉，2006年8月-2007年1月，17頁，品號5，載彩圖；50頁（內文）

倫敦，Parasol Unit當代藝術基金會，〈看得見的隱形：違背真實的安全感〉，2009年11月-2010年2月，16-17頁，品號16，載彩圖

伊倫·溫蓋特（編），《塞西麗·布朗：繪畫1988-2000年》，紐約，2000年，品號23，載圖

羅伯塔·史密斯，〈藝評：塞西麗·布朗〉，《紐約時報》，2000年1月20日，E2及E42頁

D·亨特，〈朝著巴洛克進發〉，《Time Out 紐約》，2000年，57頁載圖

J·弗萊明，《塞西麗·布朗》，德梅因，2006年，17頁載圖

伊倫·溫蓋特（編），《塞西麗·布朗》，紐約，2008年，95頁載彩圖

This work is in excellent condition. Please contact the Contemporary Art Department at +1 (212) 606-7254 for the report prepared by Terrence Mahon. The canvas is unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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“The paintings are like doors flung open suddenly to reveal something shocking. Because they are so energetic they might also be viewed as moments of a movie whose sudden arrest causes the mind’s eye to trip over itself in its own voracity, tangling in dense webs of coloured light, striving to make order of intense and disordered sensations” (Robert Evrén in: Exh. Cat., Rome, Gagosian Gallery, Cecily Brown, 2011, p. 1).

 

Immersing the viewer in an utterly tantalizing frenzy of enflamed painterly gestures, Cecily Brown’s Suddenly Last Summer is a luscious fusion of painterly abstraction laced with hints at representation. Brown’s feverish brushstrokes, characteristic of her distinct style, engage the vernacular of painting itself, capitalizing on the sensuality of the medium and its ability to playfully manipulate the viewer’s perception through descriptive possibilities. Although abstract, Suddenly Last Summer presents Brown’s supreme mastery of paint in its commanding and elusive power of suggestion. Executed in 1999, Suddenly Last Summer represents one of Brown’s earliest forays into tackling the human figure in her paintings and draws judiciously upon art historical precedent, incorporating influences of Baroque Classicism, Impressionism, Proto-Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism.

Taking its title from a popular romance mystery film of the late 1950s, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn, Suddenly Last Summer is deeply rooted in contemporary culture while also paying homage to its forbearers in a splendid collusion of art historical references. Evoking Peter Paul Rubens' The Judgement of Paris (c. 1606), Edouard Manet’s Dejeuner sur l’Herbe (1863), and Paul Cézanne’s Large Bathers (1898), the present work overwhelms the viewer in a beautifully balanced and rich composition. As Johanna Drucker writes, “The higher order of compositional organization in Brown’s work references the grand tradition of theatrical landscapes filled with figures allegorical, historical, or observed. […] She engages with her sources as if in a lover’s provocation to another touch, another exchange, excitement rising with response at the level of the mark, swatch, line of the brush drawn through the wet paint.” (Johanna Drucker, “Erotic Method,” in Cecily Brown: Paintings 2003-2006, New York, 2005, p. 9) Perhaps most evidently, Brown’s visual language and handling of pigment and paint is informed by the gestural mark-making of American Abstract Expressionists. Indeed, Brown’s tenacious and tantalizing brushwork and sensual pinks are an affirmation of de Kooning’s famous mantra that "flesh was the reason oil paint was invented," and Brown herself described the medium as "sensual, it moves, it catches the light, it’s great for skin and flesh and heft and meat … I wanted to make something that you couldn’t tear your eyes away from." (Cecily Brown, in D. Peck, "New York Minute: Cecily Brown," Another, September 14, 2012) While she certainly looked to de Kooning’s luscious and fleshy paintings of the late 1960s and 1970s, Brown’s handling of paint and figuration in Suddenly Last Summer also pays distinct homage to de Kooning’s early 1950 masterpiece Excavation.  

Playfully challenging traditionally perceived boundaries of abstraction and figuration, Suddenly Last Summer illuminates the extraordinary potential of paint to unpack the admixture of sensorial faculties that makes up our human experience of seeing. In a cacophony of pale fleshy pinks, verdant greens, bright reds, and vigorously deep blues and purples, Brown capitalizes on the unpredictability of paint, hinting at figuration in unexpected places while ultimately embracing painterly abstraction.