Cecily Brown facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cecily Brown
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Cecily Brown, 2012
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| Born | 1969 (age 55–56) London, England
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| Style | Figurative art Abstract art |
| Spouse(s) | Nicolai Ouroussoff |
Cecily Brown (born in 1969) is a famous British painter. She is known for her unique style that mixes different art forms. Her work shows influences from modern painters like Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon. She also gets ideas from old masters such as Rubens and Goya. Cecily Brown lives and works in New York.
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About Cecily Brown's Life
Cecily Brown was born in England in 1969. Her mother, Shena Mackay, was a novelist, and her father, David Sylvester, was an art critic. From a young age, around three years old, Cecily knew she wanted to be an artist. Her family, especially her grandmother and two uncles who were also artists, supported her dream.
In 1992, she came to New York City as a student. She later moved there permanently in 1994. Cecily Brown is married to Nicolai Ouroussoff, who writes about architecture. They have one daughter.
Cecily Brown's Education
Cecily Brown studied art at several schools in England. She earned a special diploma in Art and Design from the Epsom School of Art from 1985 to 1987. She also took classes in drawing and printmaking at Morley College in London.
From 1989 to 1993, she attended the Slade School of Art in London. There, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts. While studying, she worked different jobs, including as a waitress and in an animation studio. She was very good at her studies, earning top honors at the Slade. She also won first prize in a national competition for British art students.
Her Art Career
After finishing her studies in London, Cecily Brown moved to New York City. She joined the Gagosian Gallery, which is a well-known art gallery. She became famous in the art world in the late 1990s. This happened after she showed paintings of rabbits playing in lively, dream-like landscapes.
In 1995, her painting Four Letter Heaven was shown at the Telluride Film Festival. This artwork was displayed in both the United States and Europe, and it helped people notice her talent. For a time, she had her art studio in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. Later, in 2011, she moved her studio to an old office building near Union Square.
How Cecily Brown Creates Art
Painting Style
Cecily Brown often starts her paintings with drawings. She uses drawing to help guide her work. She likes to repeat images that she finds both interesting and confusing.
Her paintings mix two main styles: figurative art (which shows real-life figures) and abstraction (which uses shapes, colors, and forms without showing real objects). She explores the relationship between male and female in her art. She is known for a painting style that reminds people of abstract expressionism. This style is similar to artists like Willem de Kooning and Oskar Kokoschka.
A key feature of Brown's paintings is her use of movement. She uses strong brushstrokes and many different color mixtures in her pieces. She also changes her color palettes often, so her work looks different over time. Her paintings can also remind you of the works of Philip Guston. Cecily Brown often gives her paintings titles from classic Hollywood films and musicals. Some examples are The Pyjama Game and The Bedtime Story.
Her unique painting method makes her stand out among artists today. It connects her to the art movement called Abstract Expressionism. She sometimes adds humor to her work by naming her paintings after famous musicals and films.
Cecily Brown works in a special way that is not always in a straight line. She often works on many canvases at the same time. This helps her try out new ideas for how to arrange her paintings. It also allows her to be spontaneous. She calls her process "organic." She might spend several days on one painting. She can work on up to 20 paintings at once, letting layers of paint dry before adding more.
In 1997, Brown created a special artwork called Untitled. It was a permanent installation for an art show at the P.S. 1 Contemporary Arts Center (now MoMA PS1).
In the Media
Cecily Brown has been featured in popular magazines. In February 2000, she appeared in Vanity Fair magazine. She was photographed with other artists like Inka Essenhigh and John Currin. The New Yorker magazine also showed a photo of her from behind, looking at one of her paintings.
Charity Work
In 2020, Cecily Brown donated one of her artworks to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. This was to help fund their research into COVID-19. The painting was sold for $250,000 in an online auction. Other artists also donated their works to this event.
Her Art in the Market
Cecily Brown's paintings have sold for very high prices at auctions. In March 2017, her oil painting Sick Leaves sold for $2.2 million at a Christie's auction. Soon after, in 2018, her painting Suddenly Last Summer (from 1999) sold for $6.8 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York. This shows how much her art is valued.
Art Shows and Exhibitions
Cecily Brown has had many solo art shows and participated in group exhibitions. These have taken place in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries.
Some of her important solo shows include:
- Spectacle (1997) at Deitch Projects in New York City
- Directions - Cecily Brown (2002) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
- Cecily Brown (2004) at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid
- Cecily Brown: Rehearsal (2016) at the Drawing Center in New York
- If Paradise Were Half as Nice (2018-2019) which started at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo
- Cecily Brown (2020) at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire
- Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid (2023) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
She has also been part of many group exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial in 2004.
Where to See Her Art (Public Collections)
Many of Cecily Brown's important artworks are kept in public art museums around the world. This means people can visit these museums to see her paintings.
- Four Letter Heaven (Animation Cells) (1995), Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Untitled suite (1995), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
- Untitled (1997), MoMA PS1, Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Broken Lullaby (1999), Denver Art Museum
- Father of the Bride (1999), Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York
- Service de Luxe (1999), Rubell Museum, Miami/Washington, D.C.
- Tender is the Night (1999), The Broad, Los Angeles
- Trouble in Paradise (1999), Tate, London
- Puttin' on the Ritz (1999-2000), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Hoodlum (2000-2001), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- Black Painting I (2002), The Broad, Los Angeles
- Black Painting 2 (2002), Whitney Museum, New York
- Black Painting 4 (2003), Rubell Museum, Miami/Washington, D.C.
- Girl on a Swing (2004), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Girl on a Swing #2 (2004), The Broad, Los Angeles
- Red Suzannah (2004), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Half-Bind (2005), Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
- Skulldiver III (Flightmask) (2006), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Oh, Marie! (2007), Des Moines Art Center, Iowa; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Fair of Face, Full of Woe (2008), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- All of Your Troubles Come from Yourself (2006-2009), Whitney Museum, New York
- Untitled (2010), Museum of Modern Art, New York
- A Storm at Sea (2017), Georgia Museum of Art, Athens
- Where, When, How Often, and with Whom (2017), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
- Triumph of the Vanities II (2018), Brooklyn Museum, New York
- The Hound with the Horses' Hooves (2019), Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut
See also
In Spanish: Cecily Brown para niños
