Rose Wylie: painting a noun...

Description

Celebrated British painter Rose Wylie-whose works are at once tactile, cerebral, and humorous-often draws her influence from a wide range of popular culture. Here her newest body of work references memories from her own life and mimics the way memories evolve and change over time. Wylie's source material is culled from the vast visual world around her, ranging from sixteenth-century British estates to Serena Williams and the French Open. While initially these may seem random or aesthetically simplistic, through the nuanced use of humor, language, and compositional structure, Wylie creates wittily observed and subtly sophisticated meditations on the nature of memory, and visual representation itself, in line with the paintings she has become known for over the course of her career. A new essay by art critic Michael Glover explores the remarkable painter whose work has "spark, assurance, brash humor, an extraordinary, freewheeling eclecticism that seems to be just as ready to suck in references to the art of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman portraiture as to pay homage to the films of Quentin Tarantino and the late paintings of Philip Guston." Part of David Zwirner Books's Spotlight Series, this book features Wylie's newest paintings and drawings and is published on the occasion of the artist's 2020 solo exhibition of these works at David Zwirner Hong Kong.

British artist Rose Wylie (b. 1934) creates paintings and drawings that on first glance appear aesthetically simplistic, not seeming to align with any recognizable style or movement, but on closer inspection are revealed to be wittily observed and subtly sophisticated mediations on the nature of visual representation itself. The layers of newspaper that line her studio floor are a frequent source of material for the artist, as she encounters images by chance while working. Drawing from such wide-ranging cultural areas as film, fashion photography, literature, mythology, news images, sports, and individuals she meets in her day-to-day life, Wylie paints colorful and exuberant compositions that are uniquely recognizable. These works make use of an idiosyncratic visual lexicon, the directness of cartoonish figures, and a flattened perspective, but simultaneously betray a deep awareness of art history and painterly conventions. Michael Glover is a London-based poet and art critic, and poetry editor of The Tablet. He has written regularly for The Economist, Financial Times, Independent, New Statesman, and The Times. He has also been a London correspondent for ARTnews. His latest books include Great Works: Encounters with Art (2016), Hypothetical May Morning (2018), Late Days (2018), The Book of Extremities (2019), Neo Rauch (2019), and Thrust: A Spasmodic Pictorial History of the Codpiece (2019).

'"Expect a riot of colourful and unruly compositions, which delight with their exuberance."' - Staff "Sassy Hong Kong" '"Rose Wylie's painting a noun...exhibition is truly one-of-a-kind."' - Staff "Time Out Hong Kong" '"While Rose Wylie's artworks on first glance appear simplistic or even naive, a closer examination reveals many fascinating details and reminds the viewer of the cartoon-like images of Philip Guston and Jean Michel Basquiat."' - Joanne Shurvell "Forbes" '"Wylie fearlessly tackles the thorniest topics head-on, committing her thoughts and questions about politics, religion, fame, love, history, money and nature to canvas."' - Charlotte Brook "Harper's Bazaar '"In their multiple points of reference, and visual gourmandising, Wylie's paintings are a reminder of how things coexist in our mind's eye and how the memory of a place or time is never a simple, fixed thing: merely a few threads plucked in the moment from a shimmering tangle."' - Hettie Judah "Art UK" '"She eschews art-world artiness; instead, the paintings are unaffected and joyful, and critics are captivated."' - Harriet Baker "Apollo"