Rose Wylie

About the work

I think Morris Hirshfield is a great painter when I look at how he does his girls… I like them more than his very popular paintings of animals. The girls, that is, the paintings, have a very specific personality. And, as I like things that fly… ‘Angels’ in the title seemed to fit. I didn’t colour them in yellow, as that would have spoilt the isolation of the stage-girls.

About the artist:

Born 1934 Hythe, Rose Wylie lives and works in Kent. Graduated from Folkestone & Dover School of Art, Kent (1956); and Royal College of Art, London (1981).

Drawing from such wide-ranging cultural arenas as film, fashion photography, literature, mythology, history, news images, and sports, Wylie paints colourful and exuberant compositions that are uniquely recognizable. Frequently using images as a prompt, the artist works primarily from memory, resulting in paintings and drawings that are replete with associative afterimages that remain only loosely tethered to their original referents, but tightly connected to the memories as they have developed over time. In this respect, drawing is an important aspect of Wylie’s practice—once she has selected an image or topic, she typically makes numerous drawings on that theme as a kind of mnemonic exercise from which her paintings eventually emerge. Wylie’s works make use of an idiosyncratic visual lexicon, the directness of cartoonish figures, and a flattened perspective, while simultaneously betraying a deep awareness of art history and painterly conventions.

Her works are held in public and private collections including The British Council, London; Tate, London; Kunstmuseum Wolfsberg, Wolfsberg; Hammer Museum Collection, Los Angeles; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; Royal College of Art, London; Print Collection, Arts Council of England, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Zabludowicz Collection, London; and David Roberts Foundation, London.

Selected solo exhibitions include Rose Wylie, Museum Langmatt, Baden (2021); Rose Wylie: Which One, David Zwirner, New York (2021); Rose Wylie: painting a noun…, David Zwirner, Hong Kong (2020); Rose Wylie: Hullo Hullo Following-on, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul (2020); Rose Wylie, Tate Members Room, Tate Modern, London (2018); Rose Wylie: History Painting, Plymouth Arts Centre (2018); Rose Wylie: Hullo, Hullo, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga (2018); Rose Wylie: Quack Quack, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2017-18); Rose Wylie, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2016); Rose Wylie, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2015); Rose Wylie: Pink Girls, Yellow Curls, Staedtische Galerie Wolfsburg (2014); BP Spotlight: Rose Wylie, Tate Britain, London (2013); Rose Wylie, Woof-Woof, Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Tønsberg (2013); and Rose Wylie, Big Boys Sit in the Front, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2012). Selected group exhibitions include Comics Trip!, Collection Lambert, Avignon (2021); The Future is Female – Love Letters, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn (2020); Summer Exhibition 2020, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2020); GIRL MEETS GIRL – KATHERINE BERNHARDT, KATHERINE BRADFORD, CAROLINE WELLS CHANDLER, ROSE WYLIE, Choi&Lager Gallery, Cologne (2019); Football Is Art, National Football Museum, Manchester (2019); GLASSTRESS 2019, Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Venice (2019); Women Can’t Paint, Turps Gallery, London (2018); and per and Part XV: Louise Bourgeois & Rose Wylie, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (2017); FOUND, Foundling Museum, London (2016); Chantal Joffe Beside the Seaside, Jerwood Gallery, London (2015); Drawing Biennial 2015, Drawing Room, London (2015); and Venice Biennale: Vita Vitale, Azerbaijan Pavilion, Venice (2015).

Awards include an Order of the British Empire (2018); Charles Wollaston Award (2015); John Moores Painting Prize (2014); and the Paul Hamlyn Award (2011).