Matthew

"In her drawings, watercolours and oil paintings Elizabeth Peyton combines aspects of popular culture with those of classical portraiture. On this point, she once stated that music magazines are just as important for understanding her work as, for instance, the writings of Marcel Proust. Her subjects have included pop singers, friends and acquaintances, and also historical personalities such as Napoleon Bonaparte or Ludwig II of Bavaria. Irrespective of the actual relationship between artist and model, all her portraits imply a high degree of intimacy. (...) She adds further emphasis to the private nature of her pictures by giving most of them only the subject's first name as a title. (...) Her traceable brush strokes and running patches of transparent paint suggest an intuitive technique, reinforcing the impression of immediacy and emotionality." (Y. Dziewior, in: B. Riemschneider and U. Grosenick (eds.), Art at the Turn of the Millennium', Cologne 1999, p. 394.)