Glenn Brown is one of the most renowned painters of his generation. Working from sources including the paintings of Dalí, Auerbach and Rembrandt, as well as the largely unknown artists who create imaginary worlds on the covers of mass-market science fiction paperbacks, Brown investigates the languages of painting. He wildly embellishes his source material, transforming the familiar into the alien by making changes in size, colour, surface texture and brushwork. Naturalistic colour becomes lurid, figures are elongated or enlarged into the grotesque, and heavy impasto, although painstakingly copied, is rendered entirely flat. Dalí, Fragonard and John Martin are transformed in playful juxtapositions of elements of kitsch and the sublime.
Accompanying a major, touring retrospective exhibition, Glenn Brown features over seventy paintings, sculptures and previously unpublished new works, some of which are illustrated in luxurious gatefolds. Leading critics and curators examine the trajectory of Brown's career and his importance on the international art scene.
