Constantly challenging perception and the meaning of art, Glenn Brown CBE is known for the use of appropriation in his works. Born in 1966 in Hexham, Northumberland, Brown studied at the Norwich School of Art and then at the Bath School of Art and Design, before completing his Master’s degree at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 1992.
For three decades, Brown has devoted himself to destabilising received ideas about authenticity and depth in art. He assesses the history of painting from a postmodern perspective, appropriating and restaging images that have been mediated through reproduction, and questioning longstanding faiths in the medium’s inherent expressive power.
His early practice centred around disquieting simulations of Modernist mark-making—such as the gestural, impastoed brushwork of Frank Auerbach and Karel Appel—in paintings that evoke an alien, uncanny flatness. This illusion of an almost photographically flat surface is achieved through the applicable of thin, swirling brushstrokes.
After talking to his tutor Michael Craig-Martin about how to take his work further, Brown resolved to start making photorealist versions of already-photorealist paintings. He began with the Surrealist works of Salvador Dalí, which eventually led him to the realms of 1970s and 1980s sci-fi art. ‘Salvador Dalí was depicting his dreams — the work is meant to be reality, but a reality we can’t see,’ Brown explained. ‘Science fiction images are like Surrealism in that way, they’re a dreamed reality but rendered in a way that’s meant to be realist. It was a more interesting take on the conceptual copy.’ A example from this series of science-fiction paintings is his expansive work, Jesus; The Living Dead (after ‘Jupiter Cloudscape’ 1982 by Adolf Schaller) (1997–98), which sold for £2,202,000 at Christie’s London in 2022.
In addition to his paintings, Brown has worked on a range of sculptures and drawings that echo his painterly techniques. His sculptures often involve the manipulation of traditional forms, creating fantastical figures that seem to defy gravity and convention. His drawings, meanwhile, reveal his mastery of line and detail, often serving as preparatory studies for his larger works.
Brown is often associated with the Young British Artists and was included in the 1997 exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at Royal Academy of Arts. Brown’s works have been exhibited in prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Böcklin's Tomb (copied from 'Floating Cities' 1981 by Chris Foss)
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Jesus; The Living Dead (after ‘Jupiter Cloudscape’ 1982 by Adolf Schaller)
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Dalí-Christ (after Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War 1936 by Salvador Dalí) By kind permission of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, Spain
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Led Zepplin
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Earth
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Dead Souls (Copied from 'Cities in Flight: A Clash of Cymbals' 1974 by Chris Foss)
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Kill Yourself
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Suffer Well
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Tart Wit, Wise Humor
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Titania Awakes/Love-in-Idleness
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Entertainment
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
I do not feel embarrassed at attempting to express sadness and loneliness
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Exercise One (for Ian Curtis) (after "Icebergs in Space" 1989 by Chris Foss)
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
The Creeping Flesh
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Altered State
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Scirre Eisele Cunningham
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
Robert H. Goddard Theory and Practice
Glenn Brown (b. 1966)
The Dead (in three parts)
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
One Plate (after Del Sarto/Greuze), from: Bring on the Dancing Horses
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Plate 1, from: Half-Life (after Rembrandt)
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
For J P Sartre (Tate Print)
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Disorder
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Pate 3, from: Half-Life (after Rembrandt)
GLENN BROWN (B. 1966)
Untitled (Abstract Face)