ART & ARTISTS: 2011-08-21

Saturday, 27 August 2011

Rose Wylie - part 2

This is part 2 of a 2-part post on the works of English artist Rose Wylie. For biographical notes and more works see part 1 also.

2006 Fat Controller (small)
oil on canvas

2006 Footballers Heads
oil on canvas

2006 Golf Picture, Masters
oil on canvas

2006 House and Horse
oil on canvas

2006 Lords and Ladies
oil on canvas

2006 Uma
oil on canvas

2007 Footballers Heads
mixed media on paper

2007 Sitting on a Bench with Border
oil on canvas, collage

2008 5x2 (Film Notes)
oil on canvas

2008 Battle in Heaven
oil on canvas

2008 Brown Berlin Bear's Head
oil on canvas

2008 Christmas Fairy
oil on canvas

2008 Japon Driving
oil on canvas

2008 Silent Light
oil on canvas

2008 The Manufacturers
oil on canvas

2009 Dream, Yellow Bricks, Biscuit-Head (small)
watercolour, collage on paper

2009 FC Dining Room
watercolour, collage on paper

2009 Horse, Pig and Chicken

2010 Cat, Skull and 5x2
oil on canvas

2010 Chinese Film Star (Film Notes)
ink, watercolour, collage on paper

(date unknown) Girl on Liner

(date unknown) Looking Round the Corner

(date unknown) Looking Round

(date unknown) Size 8, Orange

Thursday, 25 August 2011

This is part 1 of a 2-part post on the works of English artist Rose Wylie. At the age of 76 Rose Wylie is the ‘next big thing’, even though she’s been doing ‘her thing’ for many years now. I really like Wylie's enormous scale paintings - reminiscent of Guston and Basquiat at times, but very much her own style. The canvases, often in two parts, are just glued to the frames so that the rough edges show.

There is a lot of publicity surrounding Wylie at the moment to coincide with an upcoming exhibition at The Approach, London E2: ‘Rose Wylie and Evan Holloway’ opens 2 September until 2 October 2011.

Wylie was born in Kent, England in 1934. She attended The Royal College of Art, London from 1979-81 and Folkestone and Dover School of Art from 1952-56. She makes large-scale paintings and drawings that teem with strangely familiar characters and situations. Her inspiration comes from a dizzying array of sources, something that has led to a rather apt 'image magpie' tag in reviews. Her images are mentally rather than physically gathered before being reproduced in paint with a disarming air of naivety to produce vibrant works.

Basic primitivism gets to the nub of Wylie's subject matter, distilling it to it’s essence and celebrating it, with luxurious dabbed and stroked paint. Because of their simplified, exaggerated forms and repeated motifs her paintings and drawings often take on the appearance of animations or what she has called 'repeats'.

Wylie's subject matter is often drawn from contemporary culture: “I like working from memory, often using pin-ups, film stars, footballers etc, as they are shared contemporary gods, outside of art or religion” says Wylie. Alongside the iconic Yasser Arafat, Penelope Cruz and premier league footballers there are the personal day-to-day images such as a girl eating a chocolate biscuit. They are all there because they are part of the tapestry of visual imagery that Wylie encounters everyday – the real sharing the same space as characters in print and on film.

Her exhibitions include ‘Wear What You Like’ (solo), Transition Gallery 2008; ‘Swans Reflecting Elephants’, Kate MacGarry, London 2008; UNION, London 2006; EAST International, Norwich Gallery 2006 and ‘John Moores 16’ 1991. She was recently shortlisted for ‘Women to Watch’ 2010 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC. Her work is included in many public art collections, for example the Contemporary Art Society, Arts Council England, York City Art Gallery, Arario (Seoul, Korea) and Deal (Dallas, USA).