Cecily Brown's 'Temptations, Torments, Trials and Tribulations' in Florence

Cecily Brown's solo exhibition 'Temptations, Torments, Trials and Tribulations' opens in Florence across two venues: the Camerino di Bianca Cappello in Palazzo Vecchio and the Museo del Novecento. Curated by Sergio Risaliti, the show presents thirty works including paintings and works on paper centered on the theme of the Temptations of Saint Anthony, a subject that has engaged Brown for about a decade. In the intimate Camerino, Brown installed the 2023 painting 'Body with vulva,' depicting a nude woman on a bed, referencing Courbet, Manet, and Toulouse-Lautrec. The exhibition also features a 16th-century anonymous Flemish painting of the Temptations of Saint Anthony from a private collection, which shows Michelangelo's influence and inspired Brown's abstract narratives. Brown's large-scale canvases create a visual vertigo through chromatic vortices, achieving a near-baroque effect. The artist, represented by Thomas Dane Gallery (London and Naples), describes her work as resisting stabilization, favoring restlessness and ambiguity. The exhibition runs at both venues in Florence.