She left London because her paintings felt hopelessly unfashionable compared with the work of the YBAs. Now she’s back with a blockbuster show – and the world has come round to her point of view
P
eople say that Cecily Brown left London in the early 1990s because of the YBAs – as if, she laughs, she wanted to get away from them. “I actually had great admiration for the art being made, I just wasn’t in sync with them.” While Damien Hirst was dunking dead animals in formaldehyde and Sarah Lucas was devouring bananas in front of the camera, Brown was wielding a palette and brush. “There was this feeling in London at the time that if you were a painter, you were a loser. I didn’t feel like a saddo for being a painter in New York.”
You would think, then, that she’d be returning triumphant. She was taken on in her 20s by mega-gallery Gagosian, and has works in MoMA and the Tate. Recent shows include a survey at the Met in New York. Her paintings, slippery and complex canvases that are richly allusive and reward slow looking, sell for millions, making her one of the most valuable living female artists.
But a few days ahead of her first big museum show back home, at London’s Serpentine Gallery, she’s a bag of nerves. “The thing I’m really afraid of is critics, because they’ll say it’s overhyped. I feel I’ve got to prove myself. I want each show to improve on the last, which of course isn’t going to happen – it’s not linear. As I get older I’m more aware because I think, God, I’ve been so lucky …” She stops, casts around for a piece of paper and a pen, takes a breath. “Sometimes it’s helpful to doodle.”
