The isle of the dead
By Glenn Brown, 1998
A body stretched out in rest becomes something almost otherworldly in this 1998 painting by British artist Glenn Brown. Born in 1966, Brown is known for a technique that fools the eye completely. What appears to be thick, ropey brushstrokes swirling across the figure is actually painted on a perfectly flat surface. Run your fingers over it and you would feel nothing but smoothness. Every twisting strand of gold and orange is an illusion, built up patiently by Brown until the skin seems to melt, ripple, and burn like wax caught in slow motion.
Brown borrowed his title from Arnold Böcklin's eerie "Isle of the Dead," painted in the late 1800s, and reworking older artists' images into fresh, unsettling versions is a habit of his. The glowing warmth of the reclining body sits against a chilly, bottomless blue, and that clash of temperatures gives the picture a haunting, dreamlike feel. It is a clever bit of visual trickery, playing with what your eyes expect while turning a quiet resting pose into something that feels alive and strangely restless.