Cecily Brown

Cecily Brown was born in London, England in 1969. She now lives and works in New York City. Brown received her BA in Fine Arts from the Slade School of Art in London in 1993. During her studies she became inspired by the Abstract Expressionist movement, especially the work of Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell. While these art historical references are still present in her work, Cecily Brown has now come to be renowned for her own distinctive style. Her striking oil paintings and drawings are usually comprised of bold, sweeping, gestural strokes. Both figurative and abstract, the work is innately feminine, human, and sometimes erotic. The fragmented figures of Brown’s canvases pulse with energy, drawing the viewer into an unusual, unknown, yet beautiful world. Her work is now in an impressive number of public collections, some of which include: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, the Des Moines Arts Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Essel Museum, the Deichtorhallen, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Broad Art Foundation, the Essl Museum, and the Austria Museum der Moderne Salzburg.