Christopher Le Brun
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Biography
Christopher Le Brun is one of the leading British painters of his generation, celebrated internationally since the 1980s, making both figurative and abstract work in painting, sculpture and print. He was an instrumental public figure in his role as President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 2011 to 2019. He was awarded a Knighthood for services to the Arts in the 2021 New Year Honours. At the beginning of 2023, further two of his major pieces were added to institutional collections of Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art & Urban Planning (MoCAUP) in Shenzhen.
Le Brun employs a mastery of touch and colour alongside a profound understanding of art history and a wide range of visual, musical and literary sources. He has remained consistent in adhering to what he feels to be the essential poetry and pleasure of painting for its own sake, led by intuition and visual imagination and resistant to external justification.
His interest in the formal possibilities of painting has led recently to the development of modular compositions from single pieces through to large and highly complex canvases, triptychs and monumental multipart paintings, extending the limits of abstract pictorial composition. A heightened awareness of the physicality of the painting process with its dramatic tension between revealing and covering, has been a central feature of his work that unites all its phases whether abstract or figurative.
Born in Portsmouth in 1951, Christopher Le Brun trained at the Slade and Chelsea Schools of Art, London. In his early career, he was a double prizewinner at the John Moores exhibitions (1978, 1980), also showing in the Venice Biennale (1980) and the ground-breaking exhibition ‘Zeitgeist’ (1982) at the Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin. His recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China (2021); Albertz Benda, New York, USA (2020); Lisson Gallery, Shanghai, China (2019); Lisson Gallery, London, UK (2018); the Southampton Art Gallery, Southampton, UK (2018); Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK (2018); Albertz Benda, New York, NY, USA (2017); The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, FL, USA (2017); Colnaghi, London, UK (2015); Friedman Benda, New York, NY, USA (2014); New Art Centre, Wiltshire, UK (2010) and The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK (2008). Le Brun served as a trustee of Tate from 1990–1995; The National Gallery from 1996–2003; the Dulwich Picture Gallery from 2000–2005; and as a founding trustee of the Royal Drawing School from 2003–2016. He was a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery between 2012-19. He was elected the first Professor of Drawing of the Royal Academy, London in 2000, where he also served as President from 2011-2021, the 26th since Sir Joshua Reynolds and the youngest since Lord Leighton in 1878.
His work is in many museum collections including Tate Gallery, London, UK; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art & Urban Planning (MoCAUP), Shenzhen, China, the British Museum, London, UK; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland; The Whitworth, Manchester, UK; Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China, and Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA. Le Brun’s public sculptures include Union (horse with two discs) at the Museum of London; City Wing on the site of the former stock exchange at Threadneedle Street; and The Monument to Victor Hugo on the quayside in St Helier, Jersey.
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Works
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Video
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Exhibitions
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ten : an anniversary
September 11 - October 18, 2025 New YorkRead more -
Left Hand, Right Hand
Christopher Le Brun and Charlotte Verity January 27 - April 25, 2025Read more -
Christopher Le Brun and Edmond Brooks-Beckman
July 11 - August 9, 2024Read more -
Christopher Le Brun: Swan Ritual
May 4 - June 3, 2023 New YorkRead more -
Christopher Le Brun: Making Light
October 7 - November 11, 2022 Los AngelesRead more -
Endless Summer
February 19 - March 26, 2022 Los AngelesRead more -
Christopher Le Brun: Figure and Play
May 4 - July 10, 2020 New YorkRead more -
Gallery 181
San Francisco July 11 - September 12, 2019Read more -
Under the Night Sky
October 25 - December 15, 2018 New YorkRead more -
Christopher Le Brun: Composer
March 2 - April 15, 2017 New YorkRead more
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Art fairs
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Taipei Dangdai 2020
Taipei January 17 - 19, 2020Booth B01 VIP Preview: January 16, 2020 Show dates: 17-19 January, 2020 Taipei Dangdai is Taipei’s global art fair and the most diverse gathering of...Read more -
EXPO Chicago 2019
Chicago September 19 - 22, 2019albertz benda is pleased to present a solo booth of new work by Christopher Le Brun, comprising three monumental paintings, and selected works from Woodlines...Read more -
Dallas Art Fair 2017
Dallas April 6 - 9, 2017albertz benda is pleased to announce their debut presentation at the 2017 Dallas Art Fair. On view will be a selection of works by British...Read more
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News
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Press
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10 Best Booths at the Armory Show 2025
Maxwell Rabb, Artsy, September 5, 2025 -
‘Left Hand, Right Hand’: Christopher Le Brun and Charlotte Verity
Zadie Loft, The London Magazine, February 26, 2025 -
Married Masters of Abstraction Open Rare Joint Show in Florida
Christopher Le Brun and Charlotte Verity have spent decades mastering their art.Morgan Becker, Artnet, February 13, 2025 -
Is Windsor the Most Un-Florida Place in Florida?
James Reginato, Town & Country, January 21, 2023 -
Frieze Los Angeles / Snapshot
Natalie Kovacs, The Design Edit, February 21, 2022 -
Opening This Week in LA
Artsy, February 17, 2022 -
New Havenʼs Art Scene: Always Excellent, and Now Reopening
Brett Sokol, The New York Times, May 20, 2021 -
CATALOGUE - Christopher Le Brun: Figure and Play
Matthew Hargraves, May 1, 2020 -
Marina Abramović and Thomas Heatherwick Honored at the Royal Academy America 2017 Gala
David Graver, Vogue, September 27, 2017 -
Christopher Le Brun: A Symphony of Colour
A3 Editorial, June 1, 2017 -
Ocula Insight: Christopher Le Brun
Robert Ayers, Ocula, May 8, 2017 -
Review: Christopher Le Brun at the Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida, and Albertz Benda, New York
Margaret Carrigan, Modern Painters, March 29, 2017 -
GF Watts: the Victorian painter who inspired Obama
Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian, March 10, 2017 -
Joy has to be part of the vocabulary of art: Q & A with Christopher Le Brun
Thomas Marks, Apollo Magazine, March 8, 2017 -
Christopher Le Brun
Sara Roffino, Art + Auction, March 1, 2017 -
This Season, Art Gets Noisy
Alina Cohen , T Magazine, February 16, 2017 -
Christopher Le Brun with Barbara Rose
Barbara Rose, The Brooklyn Rail, February 1, 2017 -
In the Studio: Christopher Le Brun PRA
Katie McCabe, Artists & Illustrators Magazine, January 1, 2017 -
Christopher Le Brun RA To Mount Two US Exhibitions In 2017
artlyst, December 14, 2016 -
Royal Academy president to show new compositions in US
Pac Pobric, The Art Newspaper, December 13, 2016
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