'I read the Melody Maker like Marcel Proust', says Elizabeth Peyton. Peyton has captured the faces of an entire generation of artists in pictures that show a very personal touch. The book presents highlights of her portraiture created between 1994 and 2010: David Hockney, Kurt Cobain, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jude Law, Jake Chapman, Lady Di and others. These androgynous figures, rife with sexual ambivalence, appear in small-format pictures in media including oil and watercolour. Peyton first attracted attention in the mid-1990s with stylized and idealized portraits of her friends, pop stars, and members of European royal houses. Peyton's sources are photographs she either takes herself or sources from the yellow press, and so her art is inspired by the studio portraits of well-known photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Robert Mapplethorpe. The painter she says she admires most is David Hockney; many critics also see the influence of Andy Warhol, who often portrayed celebrities. With essays by Laura Hoptmann and Boris Pofalla. Published by Distanz (Berlin). 112 pages, 24 x 32 cm, hardcover, Distanz (Berlin).
