For more than twenty-five years, Cecily Brown (b. 1969) has transfixed viewers with sumptuous color, bravura brushwork, and complex narratives that relate to some of Western art history’s grandest and oldest themes. After moving to New York from London in the 1990s, she revived painting for a new generation alongside a handful of other artists—many of them also women—at the very moment critics were questioning its import and relevance. The first full-fledged museum survey of Brown’s work in New York since she made the city her home, Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid assembles a select group of some fifty paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and monotypes from across her career to explore the intertwined themes of still life, memento mori, mirroring, and vanitas—symbolic depictions of human vanity or life’s brevity—that have propelled her dynamic and impactful practice for decades.
The exhibition is made possible by The Modern Circle and Agnes Gund.
Additional support is provided by Neuberger Berman Private Wealth, the Jeffrey and Leslie Fischer Family Foundation, and Barbara and John Vogelstein.
The catalogue is made possible by The Modern Circle.
Additional support is provided by the Forman Family Foundation, Liza Mauer and Andrew Sheiner, Paula Cooper Gallery, and Thomas Dane Gallery.
Artist Interview
Go behind the scenes with artist Cecily Brown, who discusses the inspiration and making of Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid, the first full-fledged museum survey of Brown’s work in New York since she made the city her home.
Latest Reviews
[Brown’s] canvases of ruthless beauty... hover between abstraction and figuration.
Brown’s solo exhibition... highlights her influential position within contemporary painting’s recasting of art history’s grandiose themes.
The work in the Met show is beautiful, and became more so on each of my three visits.
Featured Content

Join artist Cecily Brown and Met curator Adam Eaker for a conversation about Brown’s engagement with art history, influences from The Met collection, and her own singular artistic practice.