Amuse Magazine

 

State of the Art - ANNIE KEVANS, 39

 

What does she do?
 
Portraits, mostly in oils, of public figures with a political twist. With her ‘Collaborators’ series, she profiled the likes of Coco Chanel and Gaston Louis Vuitton, exploring their relationships with the Nazis during World War II. The works in ‘Girls’ explored the sexualisation of childhood, with portraits of child stars including Brooke Shields, Britney Spears and the Olsen twins, semi-naked with plump red lips.
 
Early inspirations?
 
“A colouring-in book of Tudor kings and queens which my mum gave me after visiting England (we lived in France). I also remember being fascinated by the chair in ‘Vincent’s Chair with His Pipe’ by Van Gogh and attempting to copy it from a poster we had at home. My childhood entailed a lot of making things as we didn’t have that many toys.”
 
Who’s bought her work?
 
Charles Saatchi, Stephen Fry, Marc Quinn, John McEnroe, movie mogul and philanthropist Jean Pigozzi and real-estate mogul and socialite Beth Rudin De Woody. Prices start from £4,500.
 
What’s next?
 
“I am working on some paintings on canvas after many years of working exclusively on canvas paper, exploring ideas relating to family, love and personality. The paintings will be fairly dark but, hopefully, thought-provoking.”