This is the first exhibition in Ireland by the American painter Elizabeth Peyton, known for her intimate portraits of youthful, romantic individuals ranging from friends to historical figures and celebrities. Through painting and drawing, she has created an intensely personal body of work that confidently allows for beauty in contemporary art. This exhibition of some 20 paintings and works on paper, dating from the 1990s to the present day, has a particular focus on poetry and literature, interiors and photographs, desire and love.
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Peyton came to prominence in New York in the early 1990s as one of the few young artists exploring figurative painting. Although her paintings have clear debts to 19th-century modernist painting – from Edouard Manet to John Singer Sargent – Peyton’s work portrays an intimate understanding of 20th-century artists such as David Hockney, Alex Katz, and above all, Andy Warhol. Her dazzling palette of jewel like color with a refined graphic sensibility is enormously seductive in form and content, celebrating the aesthetics of youth, fame, and creative genius. The portraits and still lifes in this exhibition encapsulate some Peyton’s typical inspirations spanning from iconic 19th century literary Realist or Romantic figures, Nouvelle Vague filmmakers of the 1960s and current famous singer poets such as Patti Smith or Bob Dylan.
Born in 1965 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA, Elizabeth Peyton lives and works in New York. A major retrospective of her work, Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton, was shown at the New Museum in New York in 2008/09 and tours to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht. Solo exhibitions include Aldrich Museum of Art, Connecticut, 2008; Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, 2008; neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 2006; Sadie Coles HQ, London, 2005, and the Royal Academy, London, 2002. Group exhibitions include The Painting of Modern Life, Hayward Gallery, London, 2007; Getting Emotional, ICA Boston, 2005; Contemporary Painting, curated by artist Alex Katz for Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, and the Whitney Biennial, New York in 2004, and Dear Painter, Paint for me, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2002.
A fully-illustrated artist’s book accompanies the exhibition, designed by Elizabeth Peyton herself and produced by Charta Books Ltd. An afterword is written by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA and essay by Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA. This publication also includes extracts from classic texts by authors such as Honoré de Balzac, the Goncourt Brothers and Gustave Flaubert alongside an interview of filmmaker François Truffaut and Bob Dylan lyrics to cite just a few examples. Peyton’s selection ties in closely with the works presented in the exhibition and reveals some of her key inspirations. To buy the artist’s book click here
Presented with the support of the Merrion Hotel, Dublin, and assisted by RTÉ Supporting the Arts.
Related Links
Press Release
A Limited Edition print by Elizabeth Peyton is available to buy, please follow the link to IMMA Edition: Elizabeth Peyton
To buy the catalogue for this exhibition click here