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Become part of the Norton’s history and consider making a gift to support the Museum’s acquisition of renowned contemporary painter Cecily Brown’s Nudity, Language, Smoking. More than 82 years after its founding, the Norton continues to build upon Ralph Norton’s legacy to make outstanding art accessible for our thriving community. Your generous contribution allows the Museum to introduce exceptional works like Brown’s into the Collection and further its mission for generations to come.

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Cecily Brown is one of the most important painters working today.

Brown's work began to be noticed in the late-1990s when it was becoming clear that hers was the most ambitious painting to have been seen in decades. Not only did she work convincingly in the grand tradition represented by Pollock, de Kooning and other Abstract Expressionists, but she challenged her audience by breaking erotic taboos with often sexually explicit imagery. As her art grew in later years, she took on subjects from the Old Masters including quasi-pastoral beach scenes, like the one here, which is outstanding as much for its serenity as its subtle technique. As with nearly all her work, Brown inhabits the border between abstraction and figuration, crossing from one to the other with remarkable ease.

Cecily Brown (British, born 1969)
Nudity, Language, Smoking, 2023
Oil on linen
59 x 94 1/4 in. (149.9 x 239.4 cm)
Courtesy the Artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York