This book was published to celebrate the exhibition Glenn Brown: The Real Thing across two museums, Landesmuseum and Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany. With Glenn Brown acting as both artist and curator, the dual projects will highlight not only the historical depth of each collection, but their contemporary relevance, as old and new masters connect and collide.

 

"Each painting is rooted in the tradition of art history, in the work of 17th- or 18th-century painters, or of his contemporaries or sometimes of himself. The word “traditional” is often used in a condescending way, as in opposition to innovative or contemporary. But it just means that Brown works in a centuries-old lineage. There is no point in hiding the fact that painting develops in dialogue with other painters. The references go back to baroque and mannerist painting. But then—shift of time—there is also an attraction to a wholly different, more futuristic type of imagery. Science fiction springs to mind; some paintings evoke a fantasy landscape. Here Brown’s biography comes in, with the popular imagery that surrounded him growing up, maybe the posters from his childhood room or the ones seen at movie theaters."

 

Jurriaan Benschop, ‘Where the Eye Wants to Go: On the Work of Glenn Brown’, in Glenn Brown: The Real Thing, Holzwarth Publications 2023, p. 25.

 

"... I often hear people say that contemporary art isn’t as good as old master paintings. Or sometimes they say: Alright, I can’t look at old master paintings I’m only interested in contemporary art. What I really want to do is shift these audiences. If you think you don’t like old master painting then have a look at this, because you could be fascinated by it. And again, if you only go to the Landesmuseum and look at historical paintings then you should go and look at contemporary art too. Art doesn’t get better or worse, it just changes."

 

Glenn Brown, ‘Interview with Reinhard Spieler, director of the Sprengel Museum’, in Glenn Brown: The Real Thing, Holzwarth Publications 2023, p. 92.