The last time I interviewed Cecily Brown, it was early in 2020 and neither of us had any idea that a global pandemic was about to put our lives on hold. The British artist, who has been based in New York City for the past three decades, was preparing to return to the UK to exhibit her work at Blenheim Palace; we talked, then, about her nostalgic vision of the English countryside and the darkness that lies beneath that veneer of fantasy, manifested in the enchanting yet menacing works she had created for that show.
’Nature Walk with Paranoia’ (2024) by Cecily Brown
“I never got to see it, by the way,” says Brown, ruefully, of the exhibition, which was repeatedly postponed due to successive lockdowns. This year, she hopes to be here in person for her Serpentine presentation, which – like its forerunner, and in similarly idyllic surroundings – will conjure a vision of lush, flourishing beauty with a threatening undertone.
Her inspirations come from Kensington Gardens itself, of which she has fond memories from her time as an art student (she recalls seeing the work of her then-teacher Maggi Hambling at the Serpentine back in 1988), and from the children’s-book illustrations that played a formative part in her creative development. “I’ve gone back to things I looked at when I was little, from Beatrix Potter and Orlando the Marmalade Cat to vintage Ladybird books, and I’ve come to realise how influential they were in terms of using a picture to enter another world,” she explains. Like the best fairy tales, her recent nature paintings teeter on the boundary between fantasy and fear. “It might look like I’m showing a scene of a walk in the park, but there’s someone behind every tree. I think I’m trying to find that place where things are just slightly distorted and there’s an edge of unease or paranoia.”
’A Round Robin’ (2023-2024) by Cecily Brown
The new paintings, which include a rendition of the gallery, featuring Brown’s signature energetic brushstrokes and rich palette, sit alongside archival pieces – among them an aptly selected series of boating scenes in which human bodies seem to dissolve into the watery backdrop – and a number of pen-and-ink works. “They’re very much working drawings – I’ll take an image and draw it over and over, so that when I paint, I know the subject so well that it just comes out,” she says, adding that the more figurative approach she takes when sketching helps viewers to decode her paintings. Indeed, all her work invites a lingering gaze: the longer you look, the more secrets may reveal themselves within those chaotic swirls of colour. “I like to trip people up,” adds Brown. “My hope is that there’s always something to catch their eye and lure them in.”
‘Cecily Brown: Picture Making’ is at Serpentine South from 27 March to 6 September (serpentinegalleries.org).
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