Delia Brown Overview

The settings for some of Delia Brown's paintings are taken from rooms pictured in home décor magazines like Veranda, "decadent, what I think of as nouveau riche rooms" in which she portrays herself and others--some of them friends--"drinking and hanging out."... [more]

The settings for some of Delia Brown's paintings are taken from rooms pictured in home décor magazines like Veranda, "decadent, what I think of as nouveau riche rooms" in which she portrays herself and others--some of them friends--"drinking and hanging out." Her model for these works is 19th-century genre paintings, in which political and social issues were raised, and "I try to make my paintings beautiful," Delia says. At the same time, she understands that the contemporary art scene may not be receptive to her work. "If there's anything political or social going on in a work, it's declared didactic," Delia says, "and in recent years, people have become very sensitive about the overt politics in work. I try to walk a fine line between providing a pleasurable experience for viewers, and giving them something to think about." Moreover, she believes that academia fosters "this suspicion that there can't be any content below anything that's good-looking." This antipathy to glamour extends beyond the world of art to a "suspicion of a woman who appears anything other than intellectual." [show less]