Picture on the wall... English artist's large-scale paintings and drawings depict simple motifs - animals, cartoonlike figures, insects, skulls and flowers - and follow a faux-naif strain in English art history.
On Friday, September 9, 2011 from 6 to 9 p.m., Galerie Michael Janssen will be
presenting its first exhibition by English artist Rose Wylie (b. 1934) entitled
"Picture on the wall...".
Rose Wylie's large-scale paintings and drawings depict simple motifs - animals,
cartoonlike figures, insects, skulls and flowers - and follow a faux-naïf strain in
English art history. She is inspired by everyday imagery but also draws from a
comprehensive knowledge of art historical references; including Dürer woodcuts, El
Greco, de Chirico and Egyptian and Roman wall paintings.
Raw brushstrokes laid on with tremendous physicality and a rough texture of impasto
paint bring a sense of immediacy and anarchy. Wylie often hides unsatisfactory
results with a patch of fresh canvas, white paint or simply by scratching out. She
often writes on her paintings and text is included as much for pattern as for
content. This amalgamation of image and text creates a maze of narrative
possibilities where the process of combining produces a distinct interplay between
meaning and representation.
Her over-sized figures have a cartoon graphic quality and seem to carry the
simplicity and innocence of children's or primitive art. The works are suggesting an
unmediated creative process devoid of intellectual or conceptual elements. Upon
closer inspection the depth of imagery with its different styles and textures makes
the experience increasingly complex both materially and stylistically. There is a
discrepancy and tension between the distantly remembered subjects and the intensely
present material in her work. It seems as if Wylie is concerned with achieving the
most basic legibility of an image; as if she paints in order to escape academicism
and return to 'untaughtness' in an effort to recapture spontaneity.
Rose Wylie (b. 1934 in Kent, UK) lives and works in Kent, UK. She attended The Royal
College of Art, London from 1979 to 1981 and the Folkestone and Dover School of Art
from 1952 to 1956. Selected exhibitions: 2011: Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin,
Germany (solo), The Drawing Room, London, UK (solo). 2010: National Museum of Women
in the Arts, Washington DC, USA (group); UNION Gallery, London, UK (solo), Thomas
Erben Gallery, New York, USA (solo). 2009: Turner Contemporary, Kent, UK (group).
2008: Transition Gallery, London, UK (solo).
Image: Inglourious Basterds (film notes)(Thanks to Quentin Tarantino; Nazi Regalia; Giovanni di Paolo) - 2010. Oil on canvas
181 x 338 cm / 71,26 x 133,07 in.
For further information please contact: Fabio Pink, f.pink@galeriemichaeljanssen.de
Tel: +49 (0)30 259 272 50, Fax: +49 (0)30 25 927 2518
Opening: Friday, September 9, 6 - 9 p.m.
Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
Rudi-Dutschke-Str. 26 (formerly Kochstr. 60) - D-10969 Berlin
Hours: Tue - Sat 11 - 6 pm