Death and the maid

Cecily Brown's show Death and the Maid at @metmuseum is fantastic, energetic and full of surprises. At first the paintings seem mostly abstract, a deep, colorful impasto. However, figures and forms emerge as we spend more time with them.

There's tension between abstraction and figuration. Her paintings embody more than one narrative and the presence of death can be found in many of them.

Finding the show (we had but a few hours before closing time) meant rushing past tempting rooms of Medieval Art and European Sculptures, for example. We really had to hold on to our determination to get to Cecily Brown's show.

Cecily Brown, Carnival and Lent, 2006-2008, oil on linen, 97 x 103 inches

Cecily Brown, The Picnic, 2006, Oil on linen, 97 x 123 inches