His technical skill is legendary-he can render the surface of paint on canvas as flat and smooth as a glossy magazine page. All have developed distinctive, individual styles, but Brown is unique in that all of his paintings (and the photographs, prints and sculptures that he produces) are based on the work of other artists, which he transposes from reproductions. His painter contemporaries include Gary Hume, Chris Ofili and Peter Doig, who, like him, have built successful international careers. If a painting is in the studio, Brown tells me later, he may choose to continue to work on it, even if it has already been shown.īorn in 1966 and trained at Norwich School of Art, Bath College and Goldsmiths College, Brown was one of the original Young British Artists and has been at the heart of the British art scene for some 20 years.

Some of the paintings are new and some have already been exhibited. As Brown and I sit down to talk, we can see several of his paintings and sculptures. In front of the table, two armchairs side by side face the opposite wall. Shelves crowded with exhibition catalogues and art-history books line the wall behind a long work table, where two big computer screens rise up out of a jumble of sketches, photocopies and cutout shapes like paper dolls ready to be played with. Inside, the high-windowed studio is quiet and businesslike. When we eventually gain admittance, he guides me through the building and directs me to Brown’s anonymous white door.

He, too, is making a studio visit, although not to his old friend Glenn. As I wait for a response, Mark Wallinger, a Turner runner-up in 1995 and the winner in 2007, emerges from a car parked just behind me. Entrance is through a door in the perimeter wall of the schoolyard, and as I press the bell labeled “Brown,” I notice that names on the other bells include former Turner Prize contenders Michael Raedecker and Goshka Macuga.

Glenn brown artwork