Cecily Brown


In order for pictorial images to be powerful and convincing, they must have some basis in the physical world. Even the most abstract works refer to something figurative. Painting delves into the unconscious world where eroticism, sensuality, carnality and colors merge to create a new, imaginary place.

Simona Vendrame: I’m looking at that painting you haven’t finished yet. Who is the man in the painting?

Cecily Brown: Actually, it’s a woman, but you’re not the first person to think it’s a man. But I don’t think that’s so important: this isn’t a painting that deals with gender themes. What I wanted to show was that the figure – whether it’s a man or a woman – is spanking another figure, whose ass you can see here. One of my friends claims he sees a disk jockey who’s spinning a record! People always see different things in my work – a little like with Rorschach tests – even more so now that my images are more ambiguous than in my early work...




Simona Vendrame
Translation by Jacqueline Smith