Click here to view artist's works

Elizabeth Peyton (b. 1965)

An American painter who rose to prominence in the mid 1990s, Elizabeth Peyton (alongside John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage) is often credited with the resurgence and subsequent domination of figurative painting in the contemporary art world. Peyton is best known for stylized if not idealized portraits of her close friends, pop and rock icons, and European royalty. Her work is characterized by elongated, slender figures with androgynous features composed of vibrant, colorful brushstrokes. Early, seminal works were typically large-format oils on canvas, where her figures shared equal visual importance with the architecture surrounding them. At times, text was incorporated into these works as well. More recent paintings are typically diminutive in size, painted on thickly gessoed panels or canvases, and sanded smooth. Her pictures are composed of loose and gestural washes of thin, colorful glazes. In addition to paintings, the artist has exhibited drawings in graphite, charcoal and colored pencil as well as Ukiyo-E style woodcuts, etchings and monoprints.

Frequent subjects for the artist include fellow painter David Hockney, Queen Elizabeth II, Kurt Cobain, martyred singer of the group Nirvana, Prince Harry of Windsor, John Kerry, Noel and Liam Gallagher of the Brit-Pop band Oasis, and Ludwig II of Bavaria. Many of Peyton's subject are close friends; oftentimes artists and musicians with whom she has long-standing relationships. The intimacy of these images speak directly to the relationship between the artist and her subject. But Peyton also works extensively from paparazzi-style photographs of celebrities to whom she has no introduction. Remarkably, these paintings boast a similar and palpable intimacy -something that has established universal critical support for this artist and created a rabid collector base.

The artist’s works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

back to top