Elizabeth Peyton Overview

Elizabeth Peyton (born 1965) is an American painter who rose to popularity in the mid 1990s. She is a contemporary artist best known for stylized and idealized portraits of her close friends, pop celebrities, and European monarchy. In the mid-80s, she... [more]

Elizabeth Peyton (born 1965) is an American painter who rose to popularity in the mid 1990s. She is a contemporary artist best known for stylized and idealized portraits of her close friends, pop celebrities, and European monarchy. In the mid-80s, she studied fine arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work is characterized by elongated, slender figures with androgynous features which at times resemble fashion illustration. Her work is most often executed in oil paint, applied with washy glazes that are sometimes allowed or encouraged to drip. Several other works in color pencil have also found notoriety and recent work has included etchings. The idealization and stylization of known celebrities has led some critics to characterize her work as derivative of or in the tradition of Andy Warhol with a Romantic (see Romanticism) overtone. The artist has cited influence by David Hockney. Her celebrity subjects have included Noel and Liam Gallagher of the rock band Oasis (band),Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, Chloë Sevigny, Princes William and Harry of The House of Windsor, Abraham Lincoln, Graham Coxon, Keith Richards, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, eminem, Ludwig II of Bavaria, and members of The Kennedy Family. She has made it permissible in the art world again to use celebrities as a means of exploring the mass psyche, opening the door for artists such as Dexter Dalwood and Will Teather. [show less]