Elizabeth Peyton Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2007. Web. Feb 2011. < http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Peyton-Elizabeth.html>
1965: born in Danbury, Connecticut
Peyton, Elizabeth. Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. New Museum. Bowery New York, New York. October 2008- January 2009. Web. February 2011. http://www.newmuseum.org/elizabethpeyton/timeline.html
She was born with only two fingers on her right hand, and so she learned to draw with her left hand
Elizabeth Peyton Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2007. Web. Feb 2011. < http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Peyton-Elizabeth.html>
1987: graduates from School of Visual Arts in New York; studied Douglas Blau, Mary Heilmann, Craig Owens, May Stevens, and Jack Whitten.
Peyton, Elizabeth. Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. New Museum. Bowery New York, New York. October 2008- January 2009. Web. February 2011.
1987: first solo show in Althea viafora New York at a gallery located on lower Broadway which failed
Peyton, Elizabeth. Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. New Museum. Bowery New York, New York. October 2008- January 2009. Web. February 2011.
1987-90: assistant to artist Ronald Jones
1990-1993 researcher for PhotoReporters
1993: solo show at Chelsea Hotel; November 14–28, 1993. Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise: fifteen drawings and two paintings
signed with dealer Gavin Brown; included in 3-person show “Projects 60” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1997: King Ludwig II, Marie Antoinette, Oscar Wilde, Black-and-white drawings of Napoleon.
1994: first gallery exhibition at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, a gallery opened by artist-turned-art-dealer Gavin Brown in 1994 at 558 Broome Street, just west of SoHo in Manhattan. The exhibition consists of seven paintings of the late musician Kurt Cobain along with portraits of Jean-Pierre Léaud in the role of Antoine Doinel. The exhibition was enthusiastically reviewed by Roberta Smith in the New York Times on Friday, March 24, 1995 (“Blood and Punk Royalty to Grunge Royalty”).
Saltz, Jerry. Elizabeth Peyton, Apr. 19-May 17, 2008, at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, 620 Greenwich Street, New York, N.Y. 10014.
1995: Soho gallery called Gavin Brown’s Enterprise of iconic singers such as Kurt Cobain, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols Sid vicious and Johnny Rotten.
1997: Museum of Modern Art group show Projects 60 that featured her work with Currin and Luc Tuymans was reviewed in New Yorker and New York Times; organized by Laura Hoptman at the Museum of Modern Art.
1998: Synergy Press in Tokyo publishes Elizabeth Peyton: Live Forever, with essays by David Rimanelli and Meicost Ettal; numerous paintings and works on paper made in 1997 and 1998 of Leonardo DiCaprio, Lord Alfred Douglas, Prince Harry, and David Hockney, among others.
1998–1999: Peyton makes work at Derniere L’Etoile, a well-known print studio in New York. Prints made during this time include Silver Bosie (1998) as well as a portfolio for the Public Art Fund
July 24–September 19, 1999: Peyton’s work is included in “Examining Pictures,” a group exhibition curated by Franceso Bonami and Judith Nesbitt. The show opens at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and travels to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Elizabeth Peyton, David Hockney, Powis Terrace Bedroom, 1998. Oil on board, 9 ¾ x 7 in (24.8 x 17.8 cm). Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise
September 28, 2001–January 13, 2002: Zdenek Felix organizes a solo exhibition of Peyton’s paintings and works on paper at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany. This is the first major survey of the artist’s work.
Elizabeth Peyton, Flower Ben, 2002. Oil on board, 10 x 8 1/4 in (25.4 x 21 cm). Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise
2002: Alison Gingeras of the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou organizes “Cher Peintre, Lieber Maler, Dear Painter,” a group exhibition of figurative art. Peyton’s work is included along with that of John Currin, Brian Calvin, Francis Picabia, and Bernard Buffet among others. The exhibition travels to the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt and the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna.
October 17, 2002–January 6, 2003: Thirty of Peyton’s works on paper, including drawings and watercolors, are included in the Museum of Modern Art’s survey of contemporary drawings “Drawing Now: Eight Propositions,” curated by Laura Hoptman. The exhibition includes work by more than twenty artists working figuratively, including Laura Owens, Chris Ofili, Neo Rauch, Kara Walker, Shazia Sikander, and Barry McGee.
Elizabeth Peyton, Live to Ride (E.P.), 2003. Oil on board, 15 x 12 in (38.1 x 30.5 cm). Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise
2003: first self-portrait was included in American Vogue article about contemporary painters
2004: invited to show at Whitney Biennial, New York City
February 28-May 8, 2004: Peyton's work is included in “Likeness: Portraits of Artists By Other Artists,” curated by Matthew Higgs for the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco. The exhibition travels to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Dalhouise University Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia; University Art Museum, California State University at Long Beach; Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art & Design; and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach.
March 11–May 30, 2004: Peyton’s work is included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, organized by Chrissie Isles and Philippe Vergne.
Elizabeth Peyton, Ken and Nick (Ken Okiishi and Nick Mauss), 2005. Oil on board, 11 x 9 in (27.9 x 22.9 cm). Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise
2005: A major monograph on Peyton’s work is published by Rizzoli. The book includes reprinted essays, articles, and interviews by Meicost Ettal, Dave Hickey, Matthew Higgs, Steve Lafreniere, Linda Pilgrim, Jerry Saltz, Roberta Smith, and Giorgio Verzotti.
Elizabeth Peyton, Kiss (Tony), 2000. Lithograph, 24 x 19 in (61 x 48.3 cm). Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise
August 12–October 22, 2006: A solo exhibition of Peyton’s prints is organized by Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY. view of Elizabeth Peyton’s exhibition “The Painting of Modern Life” at the Hayward Gallery, London, October 4–December 30, 2007. Photo: Marcus J. Leith. Courtesy the Hayward Gallery
2005: portrait of John Lennon for $800,000 at auction
2006: New York magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential New Yorkers
October 4–December 30, 2007: Peyton’s work included in “The Painting of Modern Life: 1960s to Now,” an exhibition of photo-based painting at the Hayward Gallery, London, organized by Ralph Rugoff
Elizabeth Peyton, Piotr on Couch, 1996. Oil on board, 9 x 12 in (23 x 30.5 cm). Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise
Portrait:
It's not Elizabeth Peyton's fault that her lovely, jewel-like portraits of pretty, wan young men generated so much hype in the late 1990's. And if she continues to make the same kind of mannered pictures, with viscous, candy-colored glazes punctuated by deftly flicked-in red lips, dark eyes and tattoos, she won't deserve the retributive scorn that some would heap on her now. Ken, Johnson. Art in Review; Elizabeth Peyton. The New York Times: Arts. 23 November 2001.
Elizabeth Peyton's work is a parade of wan boys, doomed youth and dead artists. Strung-out and damaged, they live on cigarettes, lipstick and fame. Her paintings have their own air of sickliness, however bright the colour; Searle, Adrian. Elizabeth Peyton. The Guardian: Culture; art and design; art. Whitechapel, London. 8 July 2009.
Style: “the distilled allure of her little pictures makes them, for me, the moral center of the Biennial. Her romantic aestheticism charges her swift line an dintense color with a sense of the sacred.” Peter Schjeldahl from the reviewing the art-word event for the New Yorker. Elizabeth Peyton Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2007. Web. Feb 2011. < http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Peyton-Elizabeth.html>
It helps that her light style and appealing color range does not claim more than its due, and it helps, too, that she is sharing her love. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Size:
with small or tiny images that sit almost skittishly on the walls. Smith, Roberta. The Personal and the Painterly. The New York Times: Art and Design. New York, New York. October 10, 2008. page C29.
Dwarfed by the museum’s towering walls, Peyton’s already small works blend together, one almost indistinguishable from another. Onli, Meg. Art Fag City on Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. Bad At Sports: Contemporary Art Talk. 22 October 2008. Web. February 2011. http://badatsports.com/2008/art-fag-city-on-live-forever-elizabeth-peyton/
Colors:
“Yet Peyton’s lavender, lilac and crimson love letters to the age of innocence are finally reflecting the age of experience. Her deft brushwork and starry-eyed doting are still in evidence, but her color has darkened and her gaze is less moony. Several of her subjects look world-weary, like they’re living life, not just being fabulous.” JERRY SALTZ is senior art critic for New York Magazine, where this article first appeared. He can be reached at jerry_saltz@newyorkmag.com
“Her new candy-colored work titillated the eye while commenting on the photorealism” JERRY SALTZ is senior art critic for New York Magazine, where this article first appeared. He can be reached at jerry_saltz@newyorkmag.com
“The best collapse the distances between realist painting, modernist abstraction, personal snapshot and magazine, and are accessible, devotional and visually alive. Their gem-rich colors are applied with brazen abandon, like miniature action paintings.” Smith, Roberta. The Personal and the Painterly. The New York Times: Art and Design. New York, New York. October 10, 2008. page C29.
Her colors never take on an acid edge, whether the deep blue of a man's shirt to amber shadows across a cheek. Even the sloppy drawing works in her favor. As in caricatures or paparazzi photos, the subject can seem to take shape before one's privileged eyes. The whole scene, she seems to say, arose yesterday, and in a sense it did. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Patterns:
A brilliant colorist with a razor-sharp graphic sense, her paintings are enormously seductive in form and content, celebrating the aesthetics of youth, fame, and creative genius. Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. New Museum: Exhibitions. 8 October 2009. Web. February 2011. http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/400
She does not force one to choose between seeing a portrait as pornography or satire. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Subjects:
Cobain's eyes make direct contact with the viewer, seducing us with his innocence. Unlike the nihilistic, grungy demeanor he often displayed, Peyton here portrayed him as compassionate but distant. The work resists feelings of irony -- her craft is genuine Elizabeth Peyton (b. 1965). Christie’s. Lot 5: Sale 1997. Web. February 2011.
She is painting and drawing more from life. In one picture, of Matthew Barney, he’s sitting slightly hunched. He isn’t just some lambkin; there are circles under his eyes, he stares into the distance and into himself, posing in such a way to accept and reject our gaze. It’s a performance, a surrender, and a protective defense. JERRY SALTZ is senior art critic for New York Magazine, where this article first appeared. He can be reached at jerry_saltz@newyorkmag.com
The same features still define them as royalty as well. They are still young, slim, and androgynous. They still look familiar, and they still look ever so slightly away. Even men have deep red lips, as if posed for a fashion shoot. They end up very almost indistinguishable. Barney's rounder face and beard stubble seem almost an aberration. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Sketches:
Yet it stuck to an unfashionable style, an old-fashioned medium, and historical subjects to match. She was sketching royalty and their retainers from the past. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Photographs:
More often than not, she still works from clippings and other photographs, too, rather than from life. Even when she paints those close to her, she may paint them as children, such as Rirkrit at age three. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Famous: “although painterly in a traditional sense her work is reminiscent of those 1960s fan magazine cometitions: young women around the world sending in their drawings of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, John Lennon- the votive, often overlooked feminine response to pop.” Savage states in his Guardian article. Elizabeth Peyton Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2007. Web. Feb 2011. < http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Peyton-Elizabeth.html>
“Most are portraits and occasionally self-portraits painted from photographs or from life; a few are interiors or still lifes; one is a stunning Greenwich Village street scene.” Smith, Roberta. The Personal and the Painterly. The New York Times: Art and Design. New York, New York. October 10, 2008. page C29.
Ever seen Elizabeth Peyton and Sasha Baron Cohen in the same room together? Street, Ben. Letter from London: Peyton for Godot. 20 July 2009. Art: 21. Web. February 2011. http://blog.art21.org/2009/07/20/letter-from-london-peyton-for-godot/
Her works trace icons of contemporary culture from music to design, from contemporary friends to passed historical figures. Falutoiu, Claudia. Elizabeth Peyton: Re-mastering the sketch. 9 February 2010. Crossroads magazine.
suited to a more contemporary kind of royalty. They open their intimate surroundings but never, ever invite eye contact. One feels as at home with them as with the heroes of a young adult novel or a New Yorker cartoon, but one recognizes them as stars. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
She took up bright color, in oil on board. She took up musicians, most strikingly in a series on Kurt Cobain well before Slater Bradley took Cobain as his video doppelgänger. She painted things she loved, whether the stage at Roseland or a street scene. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
She still admires royalty, only now a very American royalty. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
There are lots of people I'm too out of the loop to recognise, or maybe it's how she paints them. If Peyton did paint the unfashionable, it makes you wonder whether anyone would really care about her work. Searle, Adrian. Elizabeth Peyton. The Guardian: Culture; art and design; art. Whitechapel, London. 8 July 2009.
Family/friends:
You could say that Ms. Peyton paints two tribes: the one formed by the people she cares about and lives among, and the one that fills her imagination. Smith, Roberta. The Personal and the Painterly. The New York Times: Art and Design. New York, New York. October 10, 2008. page C29.
Elizabeth Peyton and her bohemian flock of friends, artists, rock stars and other renowned personages living and dead have alighted at the New Museum. Smith, Roberta. The Personal and the Painterly. The New York Times: Art and Design. New York, New York. October 10, 2008. page C29.
Personal perspective of work
Peyton said her subjects evoked a feeling like "I love you; I think you’re the best thing I’ve ever seen." JERRY SALTZ is senior art critic for New York Magazine, where this article first appeared. He can be reached at jerry_saltz@newyorkmag.com
Title:
Something else, too, defines this as royalty—its exclusiveness. She titles her work with first names, like another realist out of his time, Chuck Close. However, Close means one not to know more, in order to underscore the impersonal artistry behind a subject's charisma. If his image of Philip Glass has nonetheless become iconic, it pays tribute to them both. For Peyton, as with admission to the Chelsea Hotel or with celebrity artists today, knowing matters. Like her legion of fans, I found the guessing game good for my ego. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Given that there’s not much subject matter to discuss in Peyton’s work, beyond paint and the tradition of portraiture, perhaps it was felt that wall text (which hardly appears) wouldn’t add to the understanding of the show. Onli, Meg. Art Fag City on Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. Bad At Sports: Contemporary Art Talk. 22 October 2008. Web. February 2011. http://badatsports.com/2008/art-fag-city-on-live-forever-elizabeth-peyton/
Surfaces:
She still works hastily, with a weightlessness somewhere between a promising student's art and magazine illustration. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
she trusts only in surfaces, and her trust never extends to the varied, tactile, and sensual nature of surfaces—or to the puzzle of what they withhold. While Andy Warhol supplies another starting point, she does not share the pathos of Warhol's obsession with surface. She does not multiply an image, obliterate it, or choose it for its associations with violence and death. His Jackie reflects back to the viewer her appeal and her loss. Hers will always have her youth and glamour, and John F. Kennedy, Jr., will never age or die. John Haber. The American Royals. New York City. Web. February 2011. http://www.haberarts.com/peyton.htm
Background:
Ms. Peyton is enthralled by the abstract power of paint as paint. Her broad brushstrokes and their sudden shifts function independently of her subjects. “Dallas, TX (January 1978)” shows a blond young man, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols, against a pale-orange background made luminous by the white gesso behind it and measured off by the repeating lines of the palette knife with which it was applied. His red-orange shirt is a lively tussle of brushstrokes. “Tokyo (Craig),” a nearly all-purple image that shows a figure in a darkened room, is but one example of Ms. Peyton’s extension of the modernist monochrome into everyday life.” Smith, Roberta. The Personal and the Painterly. The New York Times: Art and Design. New York, New York. October 10, 2008. page C29.
Sometimes the result helps to develop a state of mind, as in the work entitled “Tokyo” where the purple colour invades the frame and sends a message to the viewer, a message of rebellion against the overcrowding of the walls. Falutoiu, Claudia. Elizabeth Peyton: Re-mastering the sketch. 9 February 2010. Crossroads magazine.
Reasoning:
Furthermore, by placing portraits of Balzac or Napoleon next to these rock stars, and making them share the same walls, Peyton and the curatorial concept behind the exhibition offer a new perception in the appreciation of symbols nowadays. Differences between styles, status and even generations have faded.
All of the portrayed subjects are young. Kings, queens, media figures are all depicted as young, beautiful and colourful. Peyton sketches them with androgynous features, characteristic of current generations, This however also gives a sense of superficiality to her works, the majority of which are roughly traced and seem unfinished. Falutoiu, Claudia. Elizabeth Peyton: Re-mastering the sketch. 9 February 2010. Crossroads magazine.
Obama:
''Michelle and Sasha Obama Listening to Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention August 2008,'' is an oil painting that depicts Mrs. Obama in the audience at her husband's convention speech as the couple's younger daughter, Sasha, rests her head in her mother's lap. The painting joins the New Museum's exhibition ''Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton,'' Itzikoff, Dave. ARTS, BRIEFLY; Michelle Obama Portrait at the New Museum. The New York Times. 6 November 2008.
Positive perspective of work
They are also testaments to Peyton's deeper passion for beauty in all its forms - from the elevated to the everyday. Ultimately, Peyton's paintings are evidence of a dedication to the creation of a new kind of popular art. Steeped in history, her work aspires to bridge the gap between art and life. Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. New Museum: Exhibitions. 8 October 2009. Web. February 2011.
A painter of modern life, Peyton's small, jewel-like portraits are also intensely empathetic, intimate, and even personal. Together, her works capture an artistic zeitgeist that reflects the cultural climate of the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries” Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. New Museum: Exhibitions. 8 October 2009. Web. February 2011.
Negative perspective of work
There were startling moments -- in her 1999 depiction of the German rocker Jochen Distelmeyer, his baby blues can melt you -- but her Prince Charmings seemed lost in time, unthreatening, more elves
Her work looks as if it yearns for the Cafe Royal, nights with Oscar Wilde and Max Beerbohm, for bon mots and morphine, but has had to settle for stars so hip it hurts, so cool it sometimes kills them. Searle, Adrian. Elizabeth Peyton. The Guardian: Culture; art and design; art. Whitechapel, London. 8 July 2009.
That its intimate scale and willful prettification of some of the nineties’ butt-ugliest pop stars brings together teenage fandom and the tradition of 18th-century portraiture? That its objectification of sallow Caucasian male beauty strikes a blow for the female gaze? That the breathless swishiness of her paintbrush and contre-jour light effects create poignant elegies to the transience of youth? Street, Ben. Letter from London: Peyton for Godot. 20 July 2009. Art: 21. Web. February 2011. http://blog.art21.org/2009/07/20/letter-from-london-peyton-for-godot
Personal perspective of artwork:
there weren’t pictures in the world of people who did things like that - pictures which were going to last. Things in museums last longer than pictures in magazines. Falutoiu, Claudia. Elizabeth Peyton: Re-mastering the sketch. 9 February 2010. Crossroads magazine.
It was something I wanted to know existed-that people could be -heroic or could come from anywhere and make great things out of themselves. That's what I was -interested in. Cooker, Jarvis. Eliabeth Peyton. Interview. Web. February 2011. http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/elizabeth-peyton/
making art is making something live forever. Humanbeings especially-we can't hold on to them in any way. Cooker, Jarvis. Eliabeth Peyton. Interview. Web. February 2011.
It wasn't like I felt oppressed by them-more like certain people in the world were doing something very important. I wanted to highlight that. I felt like there weren't pictures in the world of people who did things like that-pictures which were going to last. Things in museums last longer than pictures in magazines. Cooker, Jarvis. Eliabeth Peyton. Interview. Web. February 2011. http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/elizabeth-peyton/
Showbiz is about showing human things-just amplified, that's all. Cooker, Jarvis. Eliabeth Peyton. Interview. Web. February 2011. http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/elizabeth-peyton/
I think little things are more powerful -because they're more honest, so people feel them more strongly. Cooker, Jarvis. Eliabeth Peyton. Interview. Web. February 2011. http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/elizabeth-peyton/
Shakespeare wrote to this young man and said that all the wars in the world can happen, everything can change, but I'm going to make art inspired by you, and you'll live forever. That's a beautiful idea
And people change every second. It's not even about leaving you or dying or anything like that - people just change. Sharpiro, David. Elizabeth Peyton. Interview. Web. February 2011. http://www.theblowup.com/archived/elizabethpeyton/page1.html
Influence:
Traditional figurative painting and drawing finds uneasy acceptance in the contemporary art world, and her frequent depiction of superstars only confuses the matter. Onli, Meg. Art Fag City on Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. Bad At Sports: Contemporary Art Talk. 22 October 2008. Web. February 2011. http://badatsports.com/2008/art-fag-city-on-live-forever-elizabeth-peyton/
