Live Forever
By Laura Hoptman
224 pages; Phaidon

Elizabeth Peyton is often credited with having reinvented—and reanimated—portraiture, and her tender, meditative depictions of friends, fellow artists, celebrities, and historical figures will make you realize why this gifted young painter has become the star attraction of so many recent exhibitions. Live Forever  includes Peyton's celebrated portraits of, among others, Kurt Cobain, Prince Harry, and David Hockney—as well as the news photos and snapshots that have attracted her to that endlessly intriguing subject: the human face.