Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels
Access Guide
We hope this guide supports your visit. Please speak to any member of staff for more information. Introduction
Elizabeth Joy Peyton (b.1965) is one of the most prominent artists working today. She paints still lifes and landscapes, but above all, portraits: of friends, of lovers, heroes, admirations, inspirations and fascinations. Her subjects include artists, activists, actors, athletes, dancers, musicians, queens, princes, politicians and poets. Captured from life, memory, literature and imagination, through found images and photographs, amongst many things her art explores love, individuality, beauty and the passing of time
This exhibition surveys Peyton’s work, with a particular focus on the last ten years. Created in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition is accompanied by a series of displays within the Collection, positioning Peyton’s art within the context of historic portraiture. Having occupied a central place within visual art since coming to prominence in New York in the early 1990s, her work demonstrates an intensely personal and increasingly expansive understanding of the genre. The displays can be found in room 2 with the Tudor Collection, in room 6 with the seventeenth- century collection, and in rooms 21 and 24 with the Victorian collection. Room 39
Dan Kjær Nielsen By Elizabeth Peyton 2016 Oil on board Private Collection
Room 35
Practice (Yuzuru Hanyu) 2018 Oil on board Courtesy of Green Family Collection
Napoleon 1991 Charcoal on paper Collection Sadie Coles
Julian 2004 Oil on board Courtesy the Artist John Donne By an unknown English artist Oil on panel, c.1595
This portrait depicts the Elizabethan poet and cleric John Donne (1572–1631). Recognised by his contemporaries as wholly original, as ‘Copernicus in Poetrie’, Donne is celebrated for the love poems he wrote as a young man including ‘Aire and Angels’. Described in his will as ‘that Picture of myne wch is taken in shaddowes’, this portrait presents the youthful poet in the guise of a melancholic lover. The Latin inscription may be read as ‘Lighten my/our darkness O Lady’, an apparently deliberate reworking of Psalm 17, ‘O Lord lighten my darkness’. On his death, Donne bequeathed the portrait to a friend with whose family it remained until it was rediscovered, mislabelled as a portrait of the medieval poet ‘Duns Scotus’ in 1959, and acquired for the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery in 2006. Of the painting, Peyton has said ‘there is some captured human beauty or humanity in it that I would like to always be near.’
National Portrait Gallery, London. Purchased with help from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, Lord Harris of Peckham, L.L. Brownrigg, the Portrait Fund, Sir Harry Djanogly, the Headley Trust, the Eva & Hans K. Rausing Trust, The Pidem Fund, Mr O. Damgaard- Nielsen, Sir David and Lady Scholey and numerous Gallery visitors and supporters, 2006 (NPG 6790) Room 37
Flaubert in Egypt (After Delacroix) 2009–2010 Oil on board Müller-Spreer Collection
Clockwise from left
Love (I) (Jonas Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais; Manon Lescaut) #2 2015 Monotype on Twinrocker handmade paper Private Collection, Switzerland
Parsifal (Jonas Kaufmann and Katrina Dalayman), NYC 2013 Oil on panel Private Collection
What Wondrous Thing Do I See… (Lohengrin, Jonas Kauffman) 2011–2012 Oil on panel Collection of Barbara Gladstone, New York
From left to right
Flowers and Diaghilev 2008 Oil on linen Private Collection
Eugene Delacroix, 1842 Oil on board Collection of Doug Inglish Jeanne Moreau and Francois Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black) 2005 Oil on board Roman Family Collection
Jonathan (Jonathan Horowitz) 2007–2009 Oil on linen on board Roman Family Collection
The Age of Innocence 2007 Oil on board Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Grenwich, C.T. USA
Nick (La Luncheonette December 2002) 2003 Oil on board Collection of Karen and Andy Stillpass
(Self-Portrait), Berlin 2011 Oil on board Private Collection
Room 37a
Flowers, Berlin 2010 Oil on board Müller-Spreer Collection After Giorgione 2011 Oil on board Private Collection, Fort Worth
Irises and Klara Commerce St. 2012 Oil on panel Roman Family Collection
Room 38
David, March 2017 2017 Watercolour on paper Private Collection
Knights Dreaming (K) after EBJ 2016 Oil on board Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
David 2016 Oil on board Private Collection
Elio, Oliver (Call me by Your Name) 2018 Oil on board Private Collection, Germany Rosenborg, (Elias) 2018 Oil on board Collection Allison Rubler
Garden of Preserving Harmony (Kristian) 2016 Oil on board Private Collection
Angela 2017 Oil on board Roman Family Collection
Raphael, (Nick Reading) 2018 Oil on board Collection Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Paris Salzburg
Vår 2013 Oil on board Courtesy the Artist Room 38a
Two women (after Courbet) 2016 Oil on board Private Collection
David Fray (Playing Ravel) 2016 Oil on board Collection of Beth Swofford
Dark Incandescence (Kristian) 2014 Oil on board Private Collection First Floor
Room 21
Elizabeth Joy Peyton (b.1965) is one of the most prominent artists working today. She paints still lifes and landscapes, but above all, portraits: of friends, of lovers, heroes, admirations, inspirations and fascinations. Her subjects include artists, activists, actors, athletes, dancers, musicians, queens, princes, politicians and poets. Captured from life, memory, literature and imagination, through found images and photographs, amongst many things her art explores love, individuality, beauty and the passing of time. In rooms 21 and 24 Peyton’s work is displayed within the context of the Victorian era. These displays accompany he exhibition Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels on the ground floor.
In recent years, still lifes and pictures inspired by the opera have increasingly entered Peyton’s repertoire. As she has said, these subjects ‘offer a way to make something that has all of the intense emotions I feel without literally revealing them. Usually they are about a person or love in some way’. Peyton’s outlook recalls a romantic, idealist view of art, characteristic of early nineteenth-century theorists such as the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel argued that the point of art is not simply to be realistic, or to imitate the contingencies of everyday life, but to give sensuous expression to our environment and to show us what spiritual freedom looks like. Peyton’s figurative language is one suffused with emotion, the feeling of a situation, expressed through the portrayal of beauty she perceives in her surroundings. Left to right
Sergei, London By Elizabeth Peyton Coloured pencil and pastel pencil on paper, 2017 Private Collection, New York
Tyler, the Creator By Elizabeth Peyton Pastel on Paper, 2019 Courtesy the Artist
Pierre Casiraghi, August 2019 By Elizabeth Peyton Pastel on paper, 2019 Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ , London
Cy By Elizabeth Peyton Pastel on paper, 2018 Collection of J & M Donnelly
After Michelangelo, (1532) By Elizabeth Peyton Coloured pencil on paper, 2017 Ringier Collection, Switzerland
Phoebe By Elizabeth Peyton Coloured pencil and pastel on paper, 2015 Collection of Rebecca Marks
E (Elias) By Elizabeth Peyton Coloured pencil and pastel on paper, 2013 Courtesy the Artist Princess Elizabeth’s First Radio Address By Elizabeth Peyton Charcoal on paper, 1993 Collection of Karen and Andy Stillpass Queen Elizabeth II b.1926
Left to right
Lovers (Kiss) By Elizabeth Peyton Pastel on paper, 2019 Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels
Choosing Ellen Terry (1847–1928) By George Frederic Watts Oil on strawboard mounted on Gatorfoam, 1864 National Portrait Gallery (NPG 5048)
Tim (Profile) By Elizabeth Peyton Pastel on paper, 2013 Private Collection
Sieglinde + Siegmund, DIE WALKÜRE (Eva-Maria Westbroek + Jonas Kaufmann) By Elizabeth Peyton Pastel and coloured pencil on paper, 2011–2012 Collection of Steven F. Roth, Los Angeles, CA Room 24
Twilight By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 2009 Private Collection. Courtesy neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Frida (Frida Kahlo) By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 2005 Tiago Ltd ‘The Tiqui Atencio Collection’ Frida Kahlo 1907–54
Matthew By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 2008 Courtesy of Charlotte Feng Ford Matthew Barney b. 1967 Second Floor
Room 2
Elizabeth Joy Peyton (b.1965) is one of the most prominent artists working today. She paints still lifes and landscapes, but above all, portraits: of friends, of lovers, heroes, admirations, inspirations and fascinations. Her subjects include artists, activists, actors, athletes, dancers, musicians, queens, princes, politicians and poets. Captured from life, memory, literature and imagination, through found images and photographs, amongst many things her art explores love, individuality, beauty and the passing of time.
This display positions Peyton’s art alongside Tudor portraiture, reflecting on the commonality of self-iconization of the subjects depicted. The display accompanies the exhibition Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels on the ground floor.
Not marble nor the gilded monuments Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory. 'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom. So, till the judgment that yourself arise, You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 55, 1609 Alizarin Kurt By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on canvas, 1995 Private Collection. Courtesy The Brant Foundation Greenwich CT. USA Kurt Cobain 1967–94
Blue Liam By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 1996 Private Collection Liam Gallagher b.1972
David Hockney, Powis Terrace Bedroom By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 1998 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg David Hockney b.1937
Prince Eagle (Fontainebleau) By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 1999 Laura & Stafford Broumand Collection Tony Just b. 1969
Keith (From Gimme Shelter) By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 2004 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director’s Council and Executive Committee Members: Ruth Baum, Edythe Broad, Elaine Terner Cooper, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Harry David, Gail May Engelberg, Shirley Fiterman, Nicki Harris, Dakis Joannou, Rachel Lehmann, Linda Macklowe, Peter Norton, Tonino Perna, Elizabeth Richebourg Rea, Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Simonetta Seragnoli, David Teiger, Ginny Williams and Elliot K. Wolk and Sustaining Members: Tiqui Atencio, Linda Fischbach, Beatrice Habermann and Cargill and Donna MacMillan 2005.13 Keith Richards b. 1943 Jarvis By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 1996 Hort Family Collection Jarvis Cocker b. 1963
Room 6
Elizabeth Joy Peyton (b.1965) is one of the most prominent artists working today. She paints still lifes and landscapes, but above all, portraits: of friends, of lovers, heroes, admirations, inspirations and fascinations. Her subjects include artists, activists, actors, athletes, dancers, musicians, queens, princes, politicians and poets. Captured from life, memory, literature and imagination, through found images and photographs, amongst many things her art explores love, individuality, beauty and the passing of time.
This display positions Peyton’s art within the context of historic self- portraiture, reflecting on representation and artistic freedom. In capturing their own likenesses, artists have pursued their own ends in a process of self-reflection distinct from the constraints of portrait commissions. As Peyton has said, ‘there are many self-portraits in the Collection where you can feel this freedom of not being literal’. The pictures shown here include Peyton’s self-portrait, a painting of the German artist Isa Genzken and a still-life, each of which is an expression of the artist’s feelings at the time of its creation. As the artist has said, ‘to trust that the whole world – my whole world – can be felt and shown in a plant or flower, is powerful’. This display accompanies the exhibition Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels on the ground floor.
Portrait at the Opera (Elizabeth) Self-portrait Oil on board, 2016 Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT. USA Elizabeth Peyton b. 1965 Isa Genzken, 1980 By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 2010 Private Collection Isa Genzken b.1948
(Pati) By Elizabeth Peyton Oil on board, 2007 Private Collection SUPPORTED BY
Sadie Coles HQ, Gladstone Gallery, neugerriemschneider, Regen Projects and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
ART MENTOR FOUNDATION LUCERNE
Exhibition Supporters’ Circle
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This exhibition has been organised by the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with Elizabeth Peyton and the Gallery would like to thank her for her generosity in its development. The Gallery would like to thank all of the collections and private individuals who have lent so generously to this exhibition. Our gratitude is also extended to the artist’s studio who have worked closely with gallery teams.
This exhibition has been made possible by the Government Indemnity Scheme. The Gallery would like to thank HM Government for providing indemnity and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.
Curator: Lucy Dahlsen
Project Management: Eloise Stewart, Ulrike Wachsmann, Natalia Calvocoressi
Design: Jules Estéves
Lighting: Lightwaves EVENTS
There is a programme of events to accompany this exhibition. For full details see npg.org.uk/events
The exhibition will tour to the following venues: The Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Denmark 30 January 30 — 1 June 2020
UCCA, Beijing 26 June — 7 October 2020