Press Release
The Galleries Show 2002 – Contemporary Art in London
The Royal Academy of Arts, London
14 September-12 October 2002
For details or to book tickets call 0870 830 0201
or visit www.royalacademy.org.uk.
Sadie Coles HQ exhibits new paintings by Elizabeth Peyton as their presentation in The Galleries Show 2002 – Contemporary Art in London at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Elizabeth Peyton, an American artist who has been represented by Sadie Coles HQ since 1997, continues to select the subjects for her emotional portraits from amongst both her friends and figures in the public eye. As well as painting fellow artists and her new puppy, the intriguingly eclectic roll call of celebrity subjects in the new work ranges from the institutional figures of Prince Harry and the Queen to the controversial rap star Eminem. While drawn in by their charisma, Peyton bypasses their aura of fame to respond to details of their personal history, extending to them the tenderness with which she paints those close to her and creating portraits which are utterly devoid of the voyeurism and intrusive gaze of the media. Rather than being coerced into blindly accepting Peyton’s interpretation, the humanism that lies at the core of these portraits offers us instead a clean slate and affords us the opportunity to reevaluate our own responses to these people.
The beautiful rooms of the Royal Academy, with all their associations of traditional portraiture from Sir Joshua Reynolds on, throw into relief Peyton’s relationship to portraiture and her distinctly twenty-first century approach to subject matter, celebrity, and love.