image from http://artnet.com
I never knew she painted him... I think she captured his eyes perfectly in the above painting. She also did a smaller piece of him on crutches from the 2002ish era. A great composition, and one of my favorites in the show.
Other highlights for me, of course, included the 6 paintings of Kurt Cobain at the entrance to the exhibit. I've seen many of them online before, but the color really looks better in real life and conveys a sort of sadness/saintliness and poignancy... they were completed only a year after Kurt died.
Peyton's fascination with what Scott called "the original rock stars" (Napoleon, Beethoven, and Marie Antoinette) certainly seems like the starting point for the rest of her subjects. Pete Doherty looks like Christ in watercolor. Liam Gallagher gets painted with a certain elegance he lacks in photos. Sid Vicious (Sidney) and Johnny Rotten are romanticized beautifully. Peyton's use of paint-- bright colors and visible brushstrokes-- lends a sort of quiet, nostalgic ache to this work. It like opening the top drawer of your night stand and looking through old photos of lovers you once loved dearly as they slept beside you.
I think the paintings she executes of her actual friends and lovers (from said night stand drawer photos) are the strongest because of their comtemplative voyeurism. The show is called "Live Forever," and Peyton allows her closest friends to do just that through her loving renditions. They're all gorgeous as she sees and portrays them... it's what many artists do, I think, through their various media. Petrarch never tired of writing sonnets for Laura, after all.
TONIGHT I'M SEEING NICKEL EYE!!! Photos will surely follow.
