CPS Group Presentations - Annie Kevans.

One of the tasks set for CPS as practice before our individual seminars was to get into groups of three and give a presentation on an artist found on the London trip. For my group we chose to research Annie Kevans whose work we saw in The Saatchi Gallery. Below is our presentation. 

Annie Kevans

Annie Kevans was born in 1972 and currently lives and works in  London. She graduated from Central St. Martins School of Art & Design in 2004 and has already had solo exhibitions in New York and Vienna as well as London. She has also been involved in many group exhibitions in the UK, Europe and also the US. 


Brief Biography 
2004 ‘Boys’ - Saatchi bought 30 paintings from her BA Degree show
•2005 ‘One Child’ - Looks at China’s ‘one child’ policy
•2006 ‘Girls’ - Dealing with the media-led sexualisation of childholld
•2007 ‘Swans’ - The American dream




•2007 ‘Vamps and Innocents’ - 1920’s female move stars who were forced to play either the virgin or the whore
Annie Kevans’ first shows/ exhibitions were during the early 2000’s. This was when the War of Terror and War in Afghanistan broke out. This was also a time during which there were many terrorist attacks; twin towers 7/11/, 2004 bombings in Madrid and the 7/7 bombings in London.  During the early 2000’s she produced a series of paintings called ‘Boys’ depicting dictators and war criminals as children. This could relate to the current state of the wars in the East and the terrorist attacks happening at the time because those people involved would also have been innocent children at one point.

Her more recent works were produced from 2009 to present during which the global recession began. Instead of reflecting the more recent politics and cultures of today her work instead looks at past public figures often relating to American History. Her art looks at issues surrounding important conflicts in the US and also on going horrors of slavery. It was during this time that the US elected their first black president, Barack Obama. Kevans’ paints figures that she believes to be overlooked, exploited or objectified within the situation of history or contemporary culture. For example in her series of paintings made from 2006 to 2008 called ‘Girls’ and ‘Mouseketeers’ she has painted Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears and the Olsen twins. Here she was looking at the continuing media-led sexual corruption of young celebrities. 


(Britney Spears with Ears, oil on paper, 2007, 75 x 50 cm)



(Lindsey Lohan, oil on paper, 2006)




(Olsen Twins, oil on paper, 2006)


Kenans' work reflects her personal interest in power, manipulation and the role of the individual. For our presentation we looked mostly at her series of paintings called 'Boys' created in 2004 as her final project.


(Adolf Hitler, oil on paper 50 x 40 cm, 2004)


(Hugo Banzer, oil on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2004)


(Mao Zedong, oil on paper, 50 x 40 cm, 2004)

This was then bought in its entirety by The Saatchi Gallery, London. This series of oil paintings depicts the ideal of innocence; a bunch of doe eyed, rosy cheeked faces of young boys. It makes your heart melt until you see the names of the children being portrayed. They are the most evil dictators and terrorists in history. Some of the paintings are painted from real photos and others are invented faces. The way Kevans has painted them is deliberate to its subject matter; the colours are washed out and delicate, as though they have been applied with love. The eyes are the main focal point of the paintings making you as the viewer feel sympathetic towards them which goes on to contradict what you think when you read the titles of the paintings. Instead this make you think of 'evil' raising many questions; when why and how did this start? What turned these once innocent children into what they became? Or were they in fact destined to end up the way they did? 

In the exhibition of these paintings in the Saatchi, they have been mounted at eye level and are lined up as though they are boys at school. It felt quite strange standing in a room surrounded by boys who have grown up to collectively kill millions of people yet our initial thoughts at first glance are ones of sympathy. Sweet young children. Its a horrible and harsh contrast to what they actually grew up to become. 

Press & Reviews on her paintings 'Boys'.

-          Port Magazine 24/04/13, interview
Quotes from the writer: ‘Peering at the painted face of an infant Adolf Hitler,  there’s a spark of innocence in the soft oily hues of his eyes. No hint is present of the unspeakable evil that this man’
 It’s an uncomfortable discourse, one that challenges our political and social understanding of the world around us’
Quote from Kevan’s during the interview: ‘I first began working with the idea of painting ‘evil’ children, but I wasn’t happy with the results and considered using photography. However, I soon realised it involved finding children to pose for the photos and, strangely, the work wouldn’t have had the same ring of truth about it as the paintings do i.e. I would have had to create photos that looked like genuine ones, and this would have seemed deliberately deceitful.’
-          The Independent 27/11/09


They are portraits only in a loose sense. "I paint people," she corrects, her works being a composite of existing images, research and imagination. Having spent months looking for snapshots of infant autocrats at play, she eventually gave up. "I thought, 'Does it matter anyway if I make them up?' It caused quite a lot of debate." And interest, too: Charles Saatchi snapped up the degree show in its entirety’