Cecily Brown, Performance. 1999, Oil on linen, 254x279cm
As if conjoined in a pool of water on a rainy day, the elusive, slippery quality of oil paint and vertical luminous lines curtain the background of the painting and frame Brown’s erotic artwork Performance. The streaked and layered blues and white oil paint bear a similarity to the luminous vertical lines in Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X. Here, the fluidity of white, cool blues and reflective black paint acts as pools of water, constantly shifting and merging, encircling the figure positioned lying on the ground, the body straddled by another, as the two figures connect in the union of sexual intercourse. Paint streaming like water behind and under the two conjoined figures, one straddling the other, it is difficult to distinguish between who is male and female with no represented sense of identity. The position on top, almost spider-like, with defined lines that form the bodily features, is a sexual position that is more female-orientated, giving rise to a dominant female sexual encounter where the woman is using her sexual agency in the act of self-pleasure. The couple is connected intimately, unaware of their surroundings and the viewer’s gaze. In this large-scale painting (254 x 279cm), the viewer’s gaze is seductively drawn into the performative act of sex as the painting’s focal point, engaging the spectator in an immersive and sublime experience. Another image of Bacon’s that comes to mind is his 1953 painting Two Figures. This painting is similar to Portrait of Pope Innocent X as it has the luminous vertical lines, but it also has as the painting’s focal point of two figures engaging in sex. Correspondingly to Brown’s painting, this work obscures the identity of the figures, although their gender is easily identified to resemble two men as the likely scenario due to Bacon’s sexual preference. However, in this painting there is an awkwardness to the figures as if sex is solely an act removed from passion, whereas Brown’s painting conveys an ease that commands the spectator’s attention. Such assertiveness in Brown’s coupling figures gives authority to female sexuality, as Annie Geard declares, “where the male figure has been invited” (2018, 136) as a participant for the woman’s sexual pleasure, flipping the art historical patriarchal gaze that empowers heterosexual me and subjectify women. Brown skilfully conveys the relationship between the central figures and the surroundings to give narrative to the painting and how it will be perceived. The tile Performance could allude to the act of painting and the pleasure Brown receives by performing the act of painting for her audience with the understanding of what paint can convey.
Review of Performance is part of Ainslie Gatt’s doctoral dissertation. Copyright: Ainslie Gatt. November 2022
Reference:
Geard, Annie. 2018. “A Matrixial Gaze: Portrayals of the Male Nude by Female Artists.” Doctor of Philosophy, The School of Creative Arts, University of Tasmania.