Glenn BrownCBE (born 1966 in Hexham, Northumberland) is a British contemporary artist known for the use of appropriation in his paintings. Starting with reproductions from other artists' works, Glenn Brown transforms the appropriated image by changing its colour, position, orientation, height and width relationship, mood and/or size. Despite these changes, he has occasionally been accused of plagiarism.
Brown currently resides and works in London and Suffolk, England. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2000. However, his exhibition at Tate Britain for the Turner Prize sparked some controversy, as one of his paintings was found to be closely based on the science-fiction illustration "Double Star" created by the artist Tony Roberts in 1973.[9]
Brown's paintings, which are uniformly smooth in surface, typically offer a trompe-l'œil illusion of turbulent, painterly application. Many viewers of his work have expressed the sensation of wanting to "lick" and "touch" the paintings.[17] Brown uses thin brushes with which he produces elongated curls and twists. The resulting flatness of the painting alludes to its origin as the chosen photograph or digital image. Per the artist Michael Stubbs: "Brown‘s computer-based preparation method prior to painting is [not] the sole reason for his relation with the digital. The computer increases and develops his choices of found imagery, but it is only a means, not the end. […]. On the contrary, his works are markers for the future of painting because they are both surface effect and material methodology, not despite the screen, but because of it.[18]"
A lot of his titles refer to titles of albums,[19] film titles,[20]science fiction literature,[21] or a specific dedication to a person.[22] The titles are not obviously connected to the paintings themselves and are not meant to be descriptive of the artwork. Brown: "That‘s it – the titles are often trying to be embarrassingly direct, and vulgar in their directness. I don‘t think that the painting is less direct, but I don‘t want the paintings to be illustrative."[23]
Paintings
'On the Way to the Leisure Centre' (2017) Oil on panel, 122 x 244 cm
The subject matters of Glenn Brown's paintings range from science-fiction landscapes to abstract compositions and figurative images based on art historical references. Most paintings share a morbid, almost creepy atmosphere, which is especially underlined by the incorporation of certain unsightly physical features of his figures such as yellowish decaying teeth,[24] translucently white blind-looking eyeballs,[25] unnatural skin colours[26] and suggestions of foulness and smell emanating from figures' bodies.[27] Brown: "I like my paintings to have one foot in the grave, as it were, and to be not quite of this world. I would like them to exist in a dream world, which I think of as being the place that they occupy, a world that is made up of the accumulation of images that we have stored in our subconscious, and that coagulate and mutate when we sleep."[28]
Many of Brown's portraits depict amorphous beings that have been described as "tumurous lumps that look like outsized, inflamed organs".[29] Often they are ironically attributed with recurring features such as flowers growing out of their compost-like bodies,[30] hallows placed over heads[31] or red noses.[32] In few of these amorphous and abstract forms, female figures are embedded[33] within the mottling masses of unidentifiable matter.[34]
Sculptures
Brown also places sculpture as a central point of his practice. They are created by accumulating thick layers of oil paint over structures or "often a found bronze sculpture, such as an equestrian figure or the human figure. Brown uses one large brush throughout the making of the sculpture. He paints shadows on the works to give them a light and dark side."[35]
'American Sublime' (2017) Oil and acrylic paint on bronze, 98.5 x 62 x 60 cm
His sculptures, deliberately emphasising the three-dimensional quality of oil brushstrokes, stand in stark contrast to his flat paintings.[36] Brown: "Originally I presented the sculptures on the gallery floor to look as abject as possible, as if they had materialised from a painting and fallen to the ground. Also, I wanted to avoid the artificial context involved in putting them on a pedestal. To view them, you had to bend or crouch down, lowering yourself to their somewhat debased position. But they were just getting destroyed, so they had to be separated from the public by putting them in vitrines. As a result, I was able to make them more delicate, and at the same time I started to use more complex supporting structures inside them. It is these supports that allow the sculptures to tilt and lean as much as they do."[37]
Etchings
'Half-Life (after Rembrandt) 1' (2016) Etching on paper, 76 x 56 cm
In 2008 Brown created a series of prints entitled "Layered Etchings (Portraits)" which were inspired by the artists Urs Graf, Rembrandt and Lucian Freud. Brown scanned a vast number of reproductions from books and digitally manipulated them by stretching them to standard sizes. He then layered selected scans over each other, resulting in single images. The many contour and incarnation lines of the original works (the artist used up to fifteen different image sources for one layered portrait), as well as the textured spots of lithographic printing, obscure the sitters' individual identities. The resulting half-length portraits are "de-individualised"[38] by the deliberate accumulation of too many portraits over each other.
The etchings were collated in Glenn Brown: Etchings (Portraits), published by Ridinghouse in 2009 which featured a specially commissioned text by John-Paul Stonard that discusses elements of the old and the new in the portraits as they embody concepts of destruction and the violence of appropriation.[39]
Drawings
In the last few years, Brown has extensively embraced drawing. Still conceptually rooted to art historical references, he stretches, combines, distorts and layers images to create subtle yet complex line-based works.[40] Brown: “I fell completely in love with drawing again about four years ago. I love the delicate intimate movement of the hand as it draws a line. With Goltzius, for instance, you get this thrill of delicacy. Drawing has a freshness and passion painting often doesn’t.”[41]
'The Music of the Mountains' (2016) Indian ink and acrylic on panel, 135 x 95 x 3 cm
In 2000 Brown was accused of plagiarism by The Times. Glenn Brown referenced a work by Tony Roberts for a science fiction novel cover. The photographer Wolfgang Tillmans won the Turner prize that year, and a legal case brought by Roberts against Brown was settled out of court.[43]
Opened to the public in October 2022, The Brown Collection displays Brown's personal collection, combining his work and work by other artists. The renovated 1905 mews warehouse has four floors of exhibition space, an archive and offices. The museum is open Wednesday to Saturday, between 10.30 am and 6 pm with no admission fee.[44]
The Brown Collection, Marylebone, London
The museum answers Brown’s long-held desire for a permanent place in London to show his collection.[45] Viewing The Brown Collection like a work of art, he says, ‘I’m concerned about it being something that I can play with, use as a mode of expression for myself. It’s a place to experiment'.[46] The collection includes both Brown’s own work and his extensive collection of works by other artists, predominantly of Old Masters, but also of 20th and 21st century artists. Among them are Gillian Wearing, Abraham Bloemaert, Henri Fantin-Latour, Grace Pailthorpe, Hans Hartung, Austin Osman Spare and Gaetano Gandolfi.
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References
↑ Jones, Jonathan (16 September 2004). "Dawn of the dead". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2004.
↑ "Glenn Brown". www.khm.at. Archived from the original on 8 March 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
↑ "Biography". Glenn Brown. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
↑ Glenn Brown: "People may think that a single painting stimulates me to make a 'copy', but I never make a direct quotation. I start with a vague idea of the kind of painting I want to make, and I do small sketches of it. These will more or less determine the size of the painting, the colour, the type of background, etc, but at that point I still don’t know what the subject matter will be, or which artist will inspire the work. Then I spend some time looking through books and catalogues to find a painting that fits my idea as closely as possible. I look at hundreds of images to find a reproduction I can transform by stretching, pulling or turning it upside down so it fits into my practice.” Quoted in Steiner, Rochelle (2004). Glenn Brown. London: Serpentine Gallery. p.95.
↑ See Pablo Lafuente’s summary of album titles resembled in Glenn Brown’s paintings: "Architecture and Morality (after a 1981 album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark), Death Disco (a 1979 record by Public Image Ltd.), Alas Dies Laughing (a Cocteau Twins song from 1982), The Osmond Family (after the 1970s American band), and The Three Wise Virgins (after Gladys Brooks’ 1957 novel, or maybe after Carlos Schwabe’s 1970s painting, or possibly a 16th-century fresco in Parma). Lafuente, Pablo (May–June 2004). "Glenn Brown". Flash Art: 111.
↑ Such as "The Rebel", "Saturday Night Fever" or "The Sound of Music". Gingeras, Alison (2004). Glenn Brown. Serpentine Gallery. p.19.
↑ For example the paintings "after Chris Foss", the illustrator of science fiction novels.
↑ Such as the series of paintings dedicated "for Ian Curtis", the lead singer of the band Joy Division, or his painting "Joseph Beuys" from 2001.
↑ MacRitchie, Lynn (3 April 2009). "Interview: Glenn Brown". Art in America. Archived from the original on 10 January 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
↑ Evident for example in “The Great Masturbator” from 2006.
↑ Evident in “Sex” from 2003 or “Wild Horses” from 2007.
↑ Evident in “Dark Star” from 2003, “Joseph Beuys” from 2001, “Led Zeppelin” from 2005 and many more.
↑ See for instance “Spearmint Rhino” from 2009, “Greetings from the Future” from 2005, “Kill Yourself” from 2002.
↑ Glenn Brown quoted in Bracewell, Michael (2009). Glenn Brown - Three Exhibitions. London: Rizzoli/Gagosian Gallery. p.70.
↑ See "The Hinterland" from 2006, "Polichinelle" from 2007, "The Revolutionary Corps of Teenage Jesus" from 2005.
↑ See especially Brown’s portraits that reference the works by Frank Auerbach, for example Brown’s "The Riches of the Poor" from 2003 or "Shallow Deaths" from 2000.
↑ See "Sex" from 2003, "Declining Nude" from 2006 or "The Holy Virgin" from 2003.
↑ Such as the female figure in "God Speed to a Great Astronaut" from 2007 or "Asylums of Mars" from 2006.
↑ Holzwarth, Hans W. (2009). 100 Contemporary Artists A-Z (Taschen's 25th anniversary specialed.). Köln: Taschen. pp.80–87. ISBN978-3-8365-1490-3.
↑ Schalhorn, Andreas (2015). Glenn Brown: Dessins. Paris: Galerie Max Hetzler. p.63.
↑ "Biography". Glenn Brown. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
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