Marc Quinn - Flower Paintings

Tanya Baxter Contemporary
Feb 8, 2018 2:18PM

Quinn's stunning flower paintings subvert one of the oldest forms of picture making: the still life.

Upper East Side Glacier, 2001, oil on canvas, 170.5 x 255 cm

To create his hyper-real, large scale oil paintings, Quinn creates a still-life arrangement in his studio using flowers and fruit he purchases in London on a particular day. Most of the combinations he uses would never bloom together in the natural world, adding to the otherworldly feel. Quinn photographs the arrangements, sometimes set against a snowy ground or volcanic sand, and then makes oil paintings from these photographs. The finished paintings depict a 'frozen' moment of unnatural time.

In Particle Ripple, Quinn casts streaks of colour over the hyper-real, enlarged flowers, in a kind of action-painting similar to Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. The colours and plasticity of the splatters appear three dimensional against the flat, smooth surface of the canvas.

Particle Ripple, oil on canvas, 169 x 255 cm

Marc Quinn first rose to prominence as one of the original Young British Artists, or YBAs, who shook up London's contemporary art scene with provocative, controversial works. Today Quinn is one of the most widely collected and recognized of the YBA's. His work is held in the most important collection worldwide and he features in numerous international exhibitions, fashion collaborations and celebrity charity events.

Tanya Baxter Contemporary