01/06/2026
All the Nightmares Came Today was produced during a period when Cecily Brown’s approach to the figure attained its most psychologically charged and painterly complex form of figurative abstraction. In this work, flesh is rendered both legible and dissolved, making the act of painting itself the central subject. The composition features increasingly compressed figures, with bodies that emerge and retreat within dense surfaces and gestural abstraction. This development signifies a deepening of Brown’s ongoing engagement with the Flemish Baroque tradition of Rubens and Bruegel, as well as the gestural freedoms characteristic of American Abstract Expressionism, above all de Kooning. The title, taken from David Bowie’s Oh! You Pretty Things (1971), references the music Brown listened to in her studio during the painting’s creation and serves to amplify the work’s atmosphere rather than provide a direct explanation.
This signed limited edition offers collectors access to one of the most significant painters of our generation — Cecily Brown’s exhibition Picture Making continues at Serpentine South, London, on view until 6 September 2026. Enquire with Dellasposa to discuss acquisition.
Artwork: All the Nightmares Came Today, 2012/2019. © Cecily Brown
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