Flash Art Covers: the historic covers of Flash Art International told by Helena Kontova.
In an image by Damian Loeb in 1998, Cecily Brown together with John Currin became the new face of American painting after Julian Schnabel.
Giancarlo and I asked Jeffrey Deitch to suggest a promising artist of the artistic panorama in New York. He suggested Cecily Brown, a young painter who was due to exhibit soon in his gallery, so we organized a studio visit like we used to do. We immediately realized how brilliant a painter and an innate talent was Cecily, and such an interesting character. David Sylvester, the author of the famous interviews with Francis Bacon, was her father. She combined both American and European painting traditions in her works, declining it with a more feminine perspective. After that meeting, we published an article on the “New Painting after Julian Schnabel” written by Cecily, who proved to be also an excellent writer. We asked Damian Loeb, another promising artist of the time, to illustrate the article. Just a few issues later, and Cecily Brown had her own cover.
