Cecily Brown

Cecily Brown (born 1969) is a British painter. Her style displays the influence of a variety of contemporary painters, from Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon and Joan Mitchell, to Old Masters like Rubens, Poussin and Goya. Brown creates paintings that give the appearance of being in continual flow of movement. Her works appear alive in the way Brown is able to use paint in an expressive application of vivid color. The energy that transcends through the painting is incredible. Her vigorous treatment of the nude figure in particular reveals a commitment to unleash conventional subjects free from their anticipated contexts. Punctuating her visual shorthand with moments of startling clarity, Brown maintains an endless, active present. Brown lives and works in New York. 

In 2023, Brown had a major retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which was the first comprehensive survey of her work in the United States. The exhibition featured over 80 of her paintings, spanning her career from the early 1990s to the present day. The show was widely praised by critics, who hailed it as a "tour de force" and a "masterpiece."

The success of the Metropolitan Museum retrospective has helped to solidify Brown's reputation as one of the most important British artists of her generation. Her work is now included in the permanent collections of major museums around the world, including the Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

In addition to her critical acclaim, Brown has also seen a significant increase in her auction prices in recent years. In 2022, her painting "Sleeping Man" sold for $10.9 million at Christie's, setting a new record for the artist. This price reflects the growing demand for her work from collectors and investors.