A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, called Thus Love (Echo), dated 2023
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, called Thus Love (Echo), dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton: Angel

David Zwirner presents a solo exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Elizabeth Peyton (b. 1965) at the gallery’s London location. The exhibition, titled Angel, is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue that will be published by David Zwirner Books in collaboration with the artist.

This is the first presentation of Peyton’s work in London since Aire and Angels, her 2019 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which placed the artist’s paintings alongside historical works of portraiture drawn from the museum’s permanent collection.

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Image: Elizabeth Peyton, Thus Love (Echo), 2023 (detail)

Dates
June 7July 28, 2023
Gallery Hours
Mon—Fri 10am–6pm

“Her desire is one for perfection: she makes her paintings into perfect images of life, which are so beautiful and draw you in. But within that desire you can feel the longing: the longing for a life that is gone, or that is going to be gone. You can feel the desire to know—truly know—those individuals.”

—Donatien Grau, advisor for contemporary programs, the Louvre Museum, Paris

A painting by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Thus Love (Echo), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Thus Love (Echo), 2023
Oil on linen board
14 1/8 x 11 inches (35.9 x 27.9 cm)
A work on paper by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Ang in the Mountains, dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Ang in the Mountains, 2023
Color pencil and oil pastel on paper
12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Framed: 19 3/8 x 16 inches (49.2 x 40.7 cm)
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, Ang in the Mountains, dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, Ang in the Mountains, 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, Ang in the Mountains, 2023 (detail)

A painting by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Liberation Warrior (Lara), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Liberation Warrior (Lara), 2023
Oil on board
15 1/8 x 12 1/8 inches (38.5 x 30.7 cm)
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Liberation Warrior (Lara), dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, Liberation Warrior (Lara), 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, Liberation Warrior (Lara), 2023 (detail)

A work on paper by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Mani Ramdu, dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Mani Rimdu, 2023
Oil pastel and colored pencil on paper
12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Framed: 19 3/8 x 16 inches (49.2 x 40.7 cm)
A painting by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Light (Lucas & Flowers), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Light (Lucas & Flowers), 2023
Oil on board
17 1/8 x 14 inches (43.5 x 35.5 cm)
A work on paper by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Mai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Omai, 1776, dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Mai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai (Omai), 1776, 2023
Colored pencil and pastel on paper
12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Framed: 19 3/8 x 16 inches (49.1 x 40.6 cm)
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Mai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai (Omai), 1776, dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, Mai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai (Omai), 1776, 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, Mai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai (Omai), 1776, 2023 (detail)

A painting by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Elvis Angel (Elvis' Eyes), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Elvis Angel (Elvis' Eyes), 2023
Oil on linen board
9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
A work on paper by Elizabeth Peyton, titled TC (Timothée), 2022 to 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

TC (Timothée), 2022-2023
Colored pencil and pastel on paper
12 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches (31 x 23.2 cm)
Framed: 19 3/8 x 16 inches (49.1 x 40.6 cm)
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, titled TC (Timothée), dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, TC (Timothée), 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, TC (Timothée), 2023 (detail)

A painting by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Ang (Ang Tshering Lama), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Ang (Ang Tshering Lama), 2023
Oil on board
12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
A work on paper by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Kiss (Elvis), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Kiss (Elvis), 2023
Pastel, color pastel, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper
14 1/8 x 10 1/4 inches (35.9 x 26 cm)
Framed: 21 3/8 x 17 1/8 inches (54.4 x 43.6 cm)
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Kiss (Elvis), dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, Kiss (Elvis), 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, Kiss (Elvis), 2023 (detail)

A painting by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Titanic (Leonardo), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Titanic (Leonardo), 2023
Oil on board
9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
A print by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Angel (Mary Magdalene), dated 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Angel (Mary Magdalene), 2023
Etching with aquatint on Magnani Pescia paper
20 1/8 x 14 7/8 inches (51.1 x 37.8 cm)
Framed: 23 3/8 x 18 1/8 inches (59.4 x 46 cm)
Edition of 25, 8 AP
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Angel (Mary Magdalene), dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, Angel (Mary Magdalene), 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, Angel (Mary Magdalene), 2023 (detail)

A work on paper by Elizabeth Peyton, titled TC (Timothée), 2022 to 2023.

Elizabeth Peyton

Love (Luca), 2023
Oil on board
20 1/8 x 16 1/8 inches (51 x 41 cm)
A detail of an artwork by Elizabeth Peyton, titled Love (Luca), dated 2023

Elizabeth Peyton, Love (Luca), 2023 (detail)

Elizabeth Peyton, Love (Luca), 2023 (detail)

Elvis’s Eyes. Angel. Elvis. Echo from Thus Love. Luca, maker of I am Love. Leonardo-Jack and Rose-Titanic. Mai. Mary Magdalene. Ang Tsherin Lama. Lara, Flowers. These are all traces of a “visionary company of love,” as the poet Hart Crane put it in his powerful poem about cathedrals from 1932, “The Broken Tower.” To discover this visionary company in an exhibition whose title can be traced back to the ancient Greek term angelos, meaning messenger, protector, someone who comes to guide us on our way.

Peyton’s subjects all become angels in her work, where light and emotion are rendered with the intensity of her distinctive humanism: a close-looking akin to love. In each subject’s specificity, the artist transmits the universal feelings that connect us to each other and to art, that stretch from our present moment back through time. In their togetherness, they constitute a painted world transmitting that ecstatic life force we feel in cathedrals and on mountain tops and which is present in each of us.

In Mai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mai (Omai), 1776, Peyton depicts the titular subject of Joshua Reynolds’s eighteenth-century portrait. In the present rendition, Peyton focuses entirely on Mai’s face.

The original painting by Reynolds portrays Mai (also known as Omai)—a Pacific Islander from Raiatea who traveled to England in 1773 and became a prominent figure among aristocratic society—at full length and barefoot, dressed in flowing, orientalized robes.

An Installation view, Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Omai (Mai), circa 1776

Installation view, Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Mai (Omai), c. 1776. National Portrait Gallery, London

Installation view, Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Mai (Omai), c. 1776. National Portrait Gallery, London

In Angel (Mary Magdalene) the artist depicts the biblical disciple of Christ. Peyton’s portrayal of Mary Magdalene is modeled after an 1876 stained-glass window in the Church of Saint-Séverin, a Gothic church in Paris. 

Throughout her career, Peyton has been fascinated by artists and cultural luminaries from historical and contemporary eras alike, and her art making is driven by an openness and curiosity that seeks to approach and understand her subjects and their creative practices. As Peyton describes her process: “I am listening to that person’s music, or I am seeing that person’s art, or just thinking about somebody a lot, or want to know more.… Like with a piece of music, I will just keep following it, listening to it. And then I want to make a picture of that person.”

Inquire About Works by Elizabeth Peyton

Installation view of the exhibition, Elizabeth Peyton: Angel, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2023.
Installation view of the exhibition, Elizabeth Peyton: Angel, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2023.
Installation view of the exhibition, Elizabeth Peyton: Angel, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2023.
Installation view of the exhibition, Elizabeth Peyton: Angel, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2023.
Installation view of the exhibition, Elizabeth Peyton: Angel, at David Zwirner in London, dated 2023.

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