ROSE WYLIE PAINTER TO TAKE NOTE OF

Kill Bill (film notes) detail, oil on canvas, 180 x 308cm

Painting these days tends to be dull whilst claiming to be sophisticated and clever, yet the most sophisticated painting in a truly sophisticated sense is that of the artist Rose Wylie.

This week Rose Wylie opened her first UK retrospective “big boys sit in the front” at the new Jerwood Gallery, Hastings. The new Jerwood space is a lovely piece of architecture acknowledging the space around the gallery as well as offering plenty of it inside. On a night which was similarly celebrating the new grand space, I was amused that one of Wylie’s canvases “getting better with water” 2011 was bordering on too large for the gallery. Inching slightly over the crisp white wall almost bursting through the ceiling, the work spared millimetres for the concrete floor. This canvas is made up of four huge panels and it is this type of scale that Wylie enjoys to work, she works on unstretched canvas so it is always an amusing challenge when a gallery space takes on new work.

In the offering at Jerwood are several awesome canvases from a fraction of Wylie’s repertoire. All are large, one gigantic and another “red blue and green twink” spanning nearly 15 meters manoeuvring around the right corner of the gallery. Presented with all of this I still crave yet more works bursting out of an even bigger space.

installation view @ Jerwood  Gallery Hastings, Getting Better With Water 2011, oil on canvas, 366 x 340cm

             
Many writings on Wylie’s work firstly assumes child-like, for me these works are not similar to a child, they only share their sincerity and charm, instead these are works of a painter who knows exactly what they are doing, every brush stroke is knowledge every erasure and daub oozes experience.

Wylie is interested in painting subjects that she finds amusing or intriguing, these are subjects that much of the population would find amusing or intriguing which makes the works within reach, yet it is what she then does with her subjects that forge a new kind of intrigue and amusement. Part of a large series of film paintings is Kill Bill (film notes) 2007.  A memory of a moment in film becomes a new experience when it is transformed into a painting. This is a double canvas measuring 180cm x 308cm and depicts two views of one scene, one view-point being slightly closer than the next. Wylie’s minds eye becomes the new camera and the brush stroke is the new action, two views of the same shot behave like a camera zoom but is equally Wylie’s memory working. At the base of the right side canvas we are drawn into the crown of Uma Thurman’s head, her painted blonde locks every bit as lush as Tarantino’s set pieces. It is not the perspective of Uma or Tarantino, here we have the perspective of the spectator, in this case Rose, but also suggested is the way our mind operates when we think back to a movie moment. We are left with a painting which is flat yet dynamic, robust, shamanic and every bit as exciting as the movie. This painting is as cinematic as painting gets.

These are in no way simple paintings they are full of intellect and complexity, a master who makes it look easy. Wylie challenges the viewer not just to look at a cat but how you can perceive it, interact with its unfathomable body, movement and personality. In the catalogue of her work you can see a series of drawings. One that strikes me is a collage of papers in a wonky fashion. Painted in water colour is “crimson cat drinking” 2010, this is not in anyway how we logically see a cat, unless it had been crushed by a steamroller. This is a painting depicting the affection and the belly chuckle amusement of a certain cat at a certain time.

In 2010 Rose Wylie was selected for an exhibition in Washington DC entitled “Women to Watch”, although well meaning this kind of referral only under values her genius as she is a painter regardless of gender, instead what we have here is a “painter to take note of”. If you are not familiar with the work of Rose Wylie the inaugural show at Jerwood Hastings is the perfect excuse to visit the seaside town and familiarise yourself with possibly the countries most exciting painter.

installation view @ Jerwood Gallery Hastings, Silent Light (film notes) 2008, oil on canvas, 183 x 366cm