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Christopher Le Brun

Christopher Le Brun is one of the leading British painters of his generation, celebrated internationally since the 1980s, making both figurative and abstract work in painting, sculpture and print. He was an instrumental public figure in his role as President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 2011 to 2019. He was awarded a Knighthood for services to the Arts in the 2021 New Year Honours. At the beginning of 2023, further two of his major pieces were added to institutional collections of Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art & Urban Planning (MoCAUP) in Shenzhen.

Le Brun employs a mastery of touch and colour alongside a profound understanding of art history and a wide range of visual, musical and literary sources. He has remained consistent in adhering to what he feels to be the essential poetry and pleasure of painting for its own sake, led by intuition and visual imagination and resistant to external justification. 

His interest in the formal possibilities of painting has led recently to the development of modular compositions from single pieces through to large and highly complex canvases, triptychs and monumental multipart paintings, extending the limits of abstract pictorial composition. A heightened awareness of the physicality of the painting process with its dramatic tension between revealing and covering, has been a central feature of his work that unites all its phases whether abstract or figurative. 

Born in Portsmouth in 1951, Christopher Le Brun trained at the Slade and Chelsea Schools of Art, London. In his early career, he was a double prizewinner at the John Moores exhibitions (1978, 1980), also showing in the Venice Biennale (1980) and the ground-breaking exhibition ‘Zeitgeist’ (1982) at the Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin. His recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China (2021); Albertz Benda, New York, USA (2020); Lisson Gallery, Shanghai, China (2019); Lisson Gallery, London, UK (2018); the Southampton Art Gallery, Southampton, UK (2018); Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK (2018); Albertz Benda, New York, NY, USA (2017); The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, FL, USA (2017); Colnaghi, London, UK (2015); Friedman Benda, New York, NY, USA (2014); New Art Centre, Wiltshire, UK (2010) and The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK (2008). Le Brun served as a trustee of Tate from 1990–1995; The National Gallery from 1996–2003; the Dulwich Picture Gallery from 2000–2005; and as a founding trustee of the Royal Drawing School from 2003–2016. He was a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery between 2012-19. He was elected the first Professor of Drawing of the Royal Academy, London in 2000, where he also served as President from 2011-2021, the 26th since Sir Joshua Reynolds and the youngest since Lord Leighton in 1878. 

His work is in many museum collections including Tate Gallery, London, UK; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art & Urban Planning (MoCAUP), Shenzhen, China, the British Museum, London, UK; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland; The Whitworth, Manchester, UK; Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China, and Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA. Le Brun’s public sculptures include Union (horse with two discs) at the Museum of London; City Wing on the site of the former stock exchange at Threadneedle Street; and The Monument to Victor Hugo on the quayside in St Helier, Jersey.

Dance Bibliography III, 2021

Christopher Le Brun
Dance Bibliography III, 2021

Oil on canvas (diptych)
130 x 151 x 3.4 cm
51 1/8 x 59 1/2 x 1 3/8 in

Untitled A17, 2022

Christopher Le Brun
Untitled A17, 2022

Acrylic on paper
92.1 x 76.7 cm
36 1/4 x 30 1/4 in

Untitled A18, 2022

Christopher Le Brun
Untitled A18, 2022

Acrylic on paper
92 x 75.4 cm
36 1/4 x 29 5/8 in

Certain Light, 2023

Christopher Le Brun
Certain Light, 2023

Oil on Canvas
200.3 x 160.3 x 4 cm
78 7/8 x 63 1/8 x 1 5/8 in

Oceanides, 2023

Christopher Le Brun
Oceanides, 2023

Oil on Canvas
200.4 x 160.4 x 4 cm
78 7/8 x 63 1/8 x 1 5/8 in
 

Exhibitions

  1. Christopher Le Brun: Phases of the Moon - past exhibition

    Christopher Le Brun: Phases of the Moon

    18 May – 3 August 2024

  2. Selected Works in Seoul - past exhibition

    Selected Works in Seoul

    2 September – 10 September 2023

  3. Christopher Le Brun: Momentarium - past exhibition

    Christopher Le Brun: Momentarium

    6 July – 20 August 2022

  4. Selected works in London - past exhibition

    Selected works in London

    8 December 2020 – 12 January 2021

  5. Horizon - past exhibition

    Horizon

    6 October – 31 October 2020

  6. Christopher Le Brun: Diptychs - past exhibition

    Christopher Le Brun: Diptychs

    6 November 2019 – 28 March 2020

  7. Christopher Le Brun: New Painting - past exhibition

    Christopher Le Brun: New Painting

    4 July – 18 August 2018

Shop

  1. New Paintings

    New Paintings

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