Background
Glenn Brown was born in 1966 in Hexham, Northumberland, United Kingdom.
Glenn Brown was born in 1966 in Hexham, Northumberland, United Kingdom.
Brown completed his Foundation Course at Norwich School of Art and Design in 1985, and later on received a B.A. degree in Fine Art at Bath School of Art and Design in 1985-1988, followed by an M.A. degree at Goldsmith's College in 1990-1992.
In his works Brown appropriates images by living, working artists, such as Frank Auerbach and Georg Baselitz, as well as paintings by historical artists, such as Guido Reni, Diego Velázquez, Rembrandt and others. In most cases, the artist uses reproductions printed in exhibition catalogues, found on the internet or ordered through print-on-demand companies. By scanning and changing the image with programmes like Photoshop, Brown playfully alters the image to his specific needs. He distorts, stretches, pulls, turns the image upside down and changes the colour, usually based on other found images, as well as the background setting.
The subject matter in Glenn Brown‘s paintings ranges from his early science-fiction landscapes over abstract compositions and still lives to the figurative images based on art historical references.
In 2000, Brown was accused of plagiarism by the Times newspaper as one of his paintings was closely based on the science-fiction illustration "Double Star" produced in 1973 by the artist Tony Roberts. In 2008 he created a series of prints entitled "Layered Etchings (Portraits)".
Although there are fewer sculptures than paintings in Brown‘s oeuvre, but they nevertheless form a central point of his practice. Brown‘s sculptures stand in stark contrast to his flat paintings as they bare all the technical features that the paintings deny.
His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Centre d’Art Contemporain, France (2000); Serpentine Gallery, London (2004); Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (2008); Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2009). Besides, he participated in numerous group exhibitions including The Saatchi Gallery (1995); Centre Georges Pompidou (2002); Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion, (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2005); Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2010), Kunsthalle, Vienna (2011), Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (2012), and Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands (2013).
Since 2013, Glenn Brown has extensively embraced drawing.
Currently, he lives and works in London and Suffolk, United Kingdom.
The Great Masturbator
Mad Love
Ornamental Despair (Painting for Ian Curtis, After Chris Foss)
Dali-Christ
The Day The World Turned Auerbach
Towards an International Socialism (after "Icebergs in Space" 1989 by Chris Foss)
The Pornography of Death (painting for Ian Curtis, after Chris Foss)
Kinder Transport
Star Dust
The Body Snatchers
The Creeping Flesh
The Happiness in One’s Pocket
Brown leads a rather closed way of life, avoids contact with the press and categorically forbids to take photos of him.