Cecily Brown (b. 1969, London) is a prominent contemporary painter whose work blends abstraction and figuration, focusing on themes of sensuality, desire and mortality. Educated at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, she moved to New York in the mid-1990s, distancing herself from the conceptual focus of the Young British Artists. Brown quickly gained recognition for her energetic, densely layered paintings that transform the materiality of oil paint into visceral depictions of human forms, often intertwined in erotic or chaotic scenes.
Brown’s paintings are influenced by old masters like Rubens and Veronese, as well as modernists like Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon. Her works explore the sensual and alchemical possibilities of paint, creating compositions that appear to shift between abstraction and representation. Human figures, limbs and body parts emerge and dissolve within frenzied brushstrokes and vibrant palettes, highlighting themes of eroticism, transformation and spectacle. Brown often draws inspiration from art history, popular culture and personal narratives, with her titles referencing Hollywood musicals or literature.
Throughout her career, Brown has experimented with varying degrees of abstraction and figuration. Her early works featured cartoonish rabbits and orgiastic scenes, evolving into more fragmented, abstract explorations of the human form. Later works embrace elements of landscape and pure abstraction, while retaining a focus on sensuality and the dynamic interplay of paint and form.
Brown’s works have been exhibited widely, with solo shows at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA); Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, D.C., USA); Museo Reina Sofía, (Madrid, Spain) and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark). She has participated in major exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial (2004) and displayed works at prominent venues, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Known for reworking her paintings over years and working on multiple canvases simultaneously, Brown continues to push the boundaries of contemporary painting from her New York studio.