Viewing Cecily Brown: Studio Pictures

After working on a large scale for several years with grand commissions displayed at Blenheim Palace and the Capodimonte Museum, British-painter Cecily Brown returns to her roots in a new exhibition of works at Thomas Dane Gallery. As its title suggests, the exhibition comprises smaller canvases (and her smallest work to date) made in and of the studio.

Here Brown easily moves from the loose, gestural brushworks that characterised her larger works into tighter, more focused images that occupy the tight confines of these smaller works without losing the dynamism of her artistic style. The term ‘keyhole views’ – the idea of viewing figures in a natural state, uninhibited by the sense of voyeurism that coined by Edgar Degas – is central to Brown’s pictures as she portrays nude figures in a state of ease and modesty from the comfort of her own studio.

Noting how, ‘you can see things more clearly when they are small,’ Brown uses this opportunity to demonstrate the skill required to paint on a small scale, reminding spectators of other impressive works of a similar format such as Pablo Picasso’s ‘La mort de Casagemas’ from 1901. They may be small, but they are mighty.