Triumph of the Vanities II
Cecily Brown
Contemporary Art
On View: Lobby annex, 1st floor
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
From its use of color to its scale, Cecily Brown’s Triumph of the Vanities II displays excesses in style and composition. This vibrant scene of semi-visible figures among thick swirls of reds, oranges, and browns leaves the impression of great movement rather than any specific action. Though a viewer may initially read the piece as an abstract painting, it is in fact highly figurative: small vignettes of intertwined figures abound throughout the image, creating a sensuous moment.
Brown was commissioned to make the work, which takes its title from Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, in response to the famed Marc Chagall murals in the foyer of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. While Wolfe’s novel describes the downfall of a figure from New York’s financial elite, in Brown’s rendition, the protagonist’s end is perhaps more triumphant than tragic.
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Gallery Label
In 2018, Cecily Brown was invited by the Metropolitan Opera to create an artwork for the main hall of the opera house. The result was a pair of monumental paintings, one of which is displayed here. From afar, this tremendous work looks like colorful, expressive abstraction; up close, however, the image teems with animated and fragmentary forms. Combining inspiration from her close study of artists such as Rubens, Delacroix, and Degas, Brown envisions a scene that is a fusion of Max Beckmann's Paris Society, which depicts a cocktail party at the German Embassy in Paris in the early 1930s, and Florine Stettheimer's paintings of New York's avant-garde gatherings of the 1920s through 1940s.
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
From its use of color to its scale, Cecily Brown’s Triumph of the Vanities II displays excesses in style and composition. This vibrant scene of semi-visible figures among thick swirls of reds, oranges, and browns leaves the impression of great movement rather than any specific action. Though a viewer may initially read the piece as an abstract painting, it is in fact highly figurative: small vignettes of intertwined figures abound throughout the image, creating a sensuous moment.
Brown was commissioned to make the work, which takes its title from Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, in response to the famed Marc Chagall murals in the foyer of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. While Wolfe’s novel describes the downfall of a figure from New York’s financial elite, in Brown’s rendition, the protagonist’s end is perhaps more triumphant than tragic.
***
Gallery Label
In 2018, Cecily Brown was invited by the Metropolitan Opera to create an artwork for the main hall of the opera house. The result was a pair of monumental paintings, one of which is displayed here. From afar, this tremendous work looks like colorful, expressive abstraction; up close, however, the image teems with animated and fragmentary forms. Combining inspiration from her close study of artists such as Rubens, Delacroix, and Degas, Brown envisions a scene that is a fusion of Max Beckmann's Paris Society, which depicts a cocktail party at the German Embassy in Paris in the early 1930s, and Florine Stettheimer's paintings of New York's avant-garde gatherings of the 1920s through 1940s.
MEDIUM
Oil on linen
DATES
2018
DIMENSIONS
109 × 311 in. (276.9 × 789.9 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2020.9
CREDIT LINE
Purchase gift of John and Barbara Vogelstein in honor of Anne Pasternak
PROVENANCE
2020, purchased from the artist by the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Lobby annex, 1st floor
CAPTION
Cecily Brown (British, born 1969). Triumph of the Vanities II, 2018. Oil on linen, 109 × 311 in. (276.9 × 789.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchase gift of John and Barbara Vogelstein in honor of Anne Pasternak, 2020.9. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2020.9_PS11.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 2020.9_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2020
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Cecily Brown
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