A painting of a face created out of Victorian female figures.

Untitled (Gossip)

Date2005

Mediumgouache and watercolor on paper

DimensionsImage: 12 3/4 × 15 inches (32.4 × 38.1 cm)

Credit LineKirk Varnedoe Collection, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, Gift of the artist.

Object number2006.7.3

On View

Not on view

Copyright© Cecily Brown. The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextCecily Brown is interested in the “fertile ground” between figuration and abstraction. Brown’s paintings, drawings, and prints embrace and frequently feature the nude human form with a feminine, and even sensual, perspective. A Brit trained in London, Brown moved to New York shortly after earning her B.F.A. from the Slade School of Art in London in 1993. Solo exhibitions in New York in the 1990s brought her work to the attention of high-profile collectors, including Charles Saatchi and Agnes Gund, effectively launching her career. Brown’s work references the history of figure painting in art, whether 20th-century painters like Willem de Kooning or 16th- to 17th-century historic painters like Peter Paul Rubens. Defending her interest in high and low source material, Brown states: “For my generation it’s just a part of how we think. Obviously, one uses a comic work, at the same time as pornography, at the same time as Titian—there isn’t really a hierarchy. You don’t draw a line, it’s all just like a mass to feed on.”

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