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INTRO

Rose Wylie’s pictures are bold, occasionally chaotic, often unpredictable, and always fiercely independent, without being domineering.

Wylie works directly on to large unprimed, unstretched canvases and her inspiration comes from many and varied sources, most of them popular and vernacular. The cutout techniques of collage and the framing devices of film, cartoon strips and Renaissance panels inform her compositions and repeated motifs. Often working from memory, she distils her subjects into succinct observations, using text to give additional emphasis to her recollections.

Wylie borrows from first-hand imagery of her everyday life as well as films, newspapers, magazines, and television allowing herself to follow loosely associated trains of thought, often in the initial form of drawings on paper. The ensuing paintings are spontaneous but carefully considered: mixing up ideas and feelings from both external and personal worlds.

Rose Wylie favours the particular, not the general; although subjects and meaning are important, the act of focused looking is even more so. Every image is rooted in a specific moment of attention, and while her work is contemporary in terms of its fragmentation and cultural references, it is perhaps more traditional in its commitment to the most fundamental aspects of picturemaking: drawing, colour, and texture.

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COMING UNSTUCK the power zing back and forth between the painting and us, the viewer? It’s both elegant It may come as a surprise to some, when and inelegant but never either ‘quirky’ or considering Wylie’s work that words like ‘power’ ‘goofy’. and ‘dissension’ come to mind. Many have been lead to believe that there would be jokes, The woman, as in many of Wylie’s works, is double entendres perhaps, and a delightfully wonderfully invulnerable, perhaps because of ‘quirky’ sensibility that has revived figuration, those mismatched eyes, and this off-centre meshing 80s’ feminism with cartoon-esque detail is key to how Wylie operates. You can humour. Nothing could be further from the tell that immense deliberation has gone truth. into the positioning of the eyes. The woman is framed, literally, within a sticky impasto Take the painting ‘Surprised Boy Meets rectangle and by the man’s gaze, but, with one Girl’(2015), a diptych in which a large young hand placed uselessly on top of a plinth, she’s man’s head in profile connects his eyes via two chosen the pose. And so has art history. She has black dotted lines to a wonkily-made, naked travelled from a 79AD Pompeii fresco via the woman, posed in some kind of booth or cubicle. Italian Renaissance to become Wylie’s Venus. The sight beams are so The Dandy or The Beano “How does an adolescent see a naked woman?” and the female nude is both reductive and Wylie asks. “It’s his imaginative projection. He exaggerated with her impossibly small waist, knows the waist is small because he’s heard outsized boobs, tapering ankles and long yellow about it. How would it look from the side? I hair. Look once and it’s a joke, look again move it and try to draw the move, which stops it and you see it’s asking questions about who’s from being literal but keeps characteristics of looking at who, who’s in control and how does that original image.” TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 11

This kind of plucking images out of time is an integral part of Wylie’s practice. The narrative time in which the paintings are placed is irrelevant, what matters are the timely associations — from George Clooney in Syriana referenced in another work, to a 16th century German portrait (see ‘Herr Rehlinger In White Armour’ (2014)) or a contemporary image of four kids playing an unknown game taken from the internet in ‘Theatre Painting (Black Spots)’ (2015). The sense of time as a category or fabric is being pushed, pulled and pummeled, until allusions become elusive. It’s as though Wylie knows exactly how you will attempt to track the visual image, and then dodges you. It keeps the looker looking and guessing, and yet the works bear the weight of this long lifetime of images, and the wisdom of looking, extremely lightly. It’s this very lightness that gives Wylie’s paintings such spring. The images leap Wylie uses a leveling of perspective, awkward out like an old-fashioned Jack-in-a-Box, composition and unruly scale, so that no line unexpected, slightly grotesque and noticeably or gesture is granted more importance than the handmade. But lightness needs gravity and next, which delivers an enthralling freedom again Wylie’s work shows a substantiality of for the viewer. The eye has to relearn where approach that is often too easily ignored. In to go. It has to re-navigate the rules of ‘The Young And Old Herr Rehlinger’ (2014), representation by examining how she resurrects two portraits across time are placed together. subjects to convey her own, very different One shows what could be a young bully boy, and idiosyncratic reality. The uneasy way we his anger emanating in a haze of white paint are forced to explore and surrender our own strokes and three quick marks beneath his parameters of taste and opinion is described by eye; while the other depicts the whitened, Thierry de Duve like this: “Then the word ‘art’ ghoulish face of either his father or himself is dictated to you by the objectified force of in old age, in which the paint is age itself: these feelings forcing you and about which, by thickened, implacable and inescapable. The a sort of immediate reflexiveness, you precisely blockish, ill-defined bodies and hand-written feel that they put your taste, your aesthetic text recall Raymond Pettibon’s work — the habitus and habits, in jeopardy.” 1 awkward embarrassment transformed into a kind of deliberate emblem or heraldry that advances a new set of anti-heroic meanings. 12 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 13

Apart from the volume and form expressed in her figures resemble the characters in the Wylie’s paintings, their complex simplicity 70s’ card game Misfits, where four body parts makes me think of the work of Bill Traylor, of a recognisable type (baby, clown, pirate, although she is certainly not an ‘outsider’ ballerina, etc) are misaligned in the shuffle artist. Traylor also favoured a flat and off- and must be realigned correctly to win: “You’re centred figuration and shared an interest in doing something you don’t know about,” she people, plants and animals as subjects, and explains. “I have affinities with Tal R, but not although he was once considered a ‘primitive’ sameness. You don’t know when you’re satisfied or ‘outsider’ artist, he is now readily accepted with a painting — suddenly it doesn’t look like into the modern canon. Dave Hickey comments Hockney or Basquiat or Guston — what governs wryly on this fickle evolution: “the honorific that, no one can say.” title of ‘art’ is not intrinsic; it is selected, then selected again and again or, worst-case Wylie’s openness to examining the cultural scenario, finally selected in the drift of time. values that determine our responses to art can We don’t want to forget that… before we dubbed tip the hints of anti-propriety in her work Titian’s ‘Venus D’Urbino’ (1538) a transcendent towards the downright ludicrous, forcing our masterpiece, it was high-dollar, soft-core laughter back on ourselves. When I suggest to pornography whipped up to decorate the bedroom her in conversation that her paintings set up of a provincial bigwig.” 2 the anticipation of a punchline that doesn’t come, she interjects with alacrity, “But does straightforward, dissenting and urgent. It Sometimes Wylie moves between the throwaway Traylor’s figures may demonstrate a similar come because it doesn’t!” She laughs. “That’s plays out not only in how she composes the and the decisive, wrong footing you and illogical disproportionality, which Wylie argues why I like Tarantino. The way he plays with figurative elements in her work but in the thick provoking a burst of laughter. At other times, gives her subjects “more grip” and “more cliché and contrasts.” and thinned application of paint and the bare the frankness with which she questions notions reality” but Wylie is keen to assert that her sections of raw canvas. She experiments with a of good and bad taste is disarming. She approaches are highly diverse and ‘taught’: “I Wylie often compares her practice to filmmaking. two centimetre-thick underline in Venetian red constantly gives away the power bestowed on her happily use anything at my disposal including There’s always a compelling tension between as an emphatic border; writes in black cursive by Western cultural traditions, both high and shadows, cross-hatching, foreshortening and motion and stasis in her work, a restlessness script as an italic motif; hand-rubs areas low, setting a revered ‘Venus’ next to a Mexican other traditional devices; and this underlying and a deeply grounded quality. Look at the of dense colour for the sheer pleasure of it; farmer on a horse carved from a coconut, as sensibility, I hope, lurks under forms in my filmstrip line-up of what could be baton- scrapes away to underlying coloured ground; if to wonder how in this world do we assume painting. twirling cheerleaders in ‘NK (Syracuse Line- deposits lumps of paint from the palette knife commonality across these cultural chasms? up)’ (2014), inspired by a version of Nicole as punctuation; and thins and textures with Her influences range from the prehistoric to “I also use perspective (although often not) Kidman, or the play of action between the three turps-soaked rags. It delivers a very satisfied the untaught, from ancient Egyptian art and and sometimes within the Eastern Perspectival ghost figures and the sparky, agitated girl in handling of paint itself. “If it’s the same old artifacts to contemporary art from non-Western Theories of André Lhote or the principals of the blue jumpsuit in ‘Theatre Painting (Black thing,” she evinces, “you get the same old cultures. Her layering and scraping off paint Russian Icon painting. Or I may organise space Spots)’ (2015). She envies the convenience answer.” and her stapling on of additional patches of from the ideas of ‘objects in isolation’ of of the film edit to shift point of view and canvas to correct a shape or mark, make us Fernand Léger, or some system or another of the emphasise dramatic effect: “In film you have There is an undeniable ingenuousness in the look with delicious irreverence at how art most important form as the biggest (ie head or movement from the close-up to the distant shot work that has often led critics to describe history constructs both the urgent and the eyes).” in a click. If you paint them it’s not ‘click’ it as ‘naïve’ or ‘faux-naïve’. It is neither. dismissed. Her art through anti-art means and into close-up at all. A camera shot is so much Wylie balances and interrogates the space methodology often recalls the innovative and She knows that a torso extends from the centre more economic and I like economy. But it’s good between unknowing and self-consciousness. unconventional work belonging to the 60s’ Arte of the body, but her disregard for anatomical to have something to work with.” She maintains a position of judgement and Povera movement. truth shifts the image from reproduction to discrimination, and establishes a closeness an original truth beyond it, within it and at This interplay of near and far may often be of engagement with a set of values through an oblique angle to it all at once. Some of funny, but it is anything but ironic. It’s deeply pure feeling. Pure feeling needn’t become 14 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT

sentimentality. Thierry de Duve calls this her skirt a little — she wanted to dance with ‘unsentimental sentiment’, “the opposite of him. But how could he dance if he was unable common sentiment”. It is simpler to suggest to die, if he was to remain always as he was… If that Wylie’s work is naïve, than to examine the the word ‘Youth’ was permanently suspended over conflictual feelings caused by a distancing his head like a sword that would not drop? How aesthetic. “The reflexivity of your contrary could he dance with the girl if stepping on the feelings is not a reflex,” states de Duve, “it lines was prohibited?” 6 is what condenses their contradictoriness into the feelings of dissension, the sentiment Finally the boy begins to move and he flutters of dis-sentiment.” 3 He goes on to say that down towards the girl. He thinks it’s life, but when tradition is breaking, judgement becomes it’s merely the poster coming unstuck. Wylie undecidable and in that moment the sentiment takes us to the place where things are about to acquires the ‘fragility of dis-sentiment’ and become unstuck, and she unsticks them and puts enters the avant-garde. 4 them back together with renewed vitality and a fresh, untrammelled sophistication. Ilse Aichinger’s short story ‘The Advertisement’, tells of a billboard poster for a holiday Text by Cherry Smyth, curator, novelist, critic camp in which a young, half-naked boy at the and poet www.cherrysmyth.com seaside holds his arms up in the air “as if in punishment for sins of which he knew nothing”.5 1 Thierry de Duve, Kant After Duchamp, MIT, Cambridge, USA, In a scene that could have emerged from one 1996, p33 2 Dave Hickey, Pirates and Farmers, Ridinghouse, London, of Wylie’s paintings, he watches a laughing 2013 girl below him. He can’t move, can only stare 3 de Duve, ibid, p35 straight ahead and he begins to wish he could 4 ibid, p71 play with her. This moment of suspended desire 5 Ilse Aichinger, ‘The Advertisement’, from The Bound Man, happens frequently in Wylie’s work. Can an Copy Press, London, 2015, p34 image of a boy fall for a real girl, even if both 6 ibid, p38 are ever only imaginary? Are we always moving between the real and the imagined in our closest relationships? “The little girl lifted

BOY MEETS GIRL (JOhdpurs)

OTHER CHOCOLATE PAINTING

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INTERVIEW BETWEEN BEN RIVERS AND ROSE WYLIE

In 2015 Ben Rivers created the film ‘What other things, looking at source material and Means Something’, an intimate portrait of Rose sitting in her jungle-like garden. Wylie: “The film, finally, is a meeting between two “I met Rose a few years ago and we got along friends.” well. I went to visit her studio and she For this publication we invited Rose and Ben watched some of my films. Happily she liked to continue their conversation. The following them. So I asked her if I could make a film dialogue took place at Rose’s home. about her and she agreed. “Much like when Rose begins a painting, Ben Rivers: You don’t have to perform or making a filmic portrait is an open anything, we can just carry on recording… I engagement; the exact form will reveal should have had it recording the whole time! itself in the making. I began by visiting Rose repeatedly, filming her in her studio, Rose Wylie: No because you wouldn’t have said house and garden. The film grew from modest anything, you know, half the stuff that we said, beginnings and became much longer than if it had been recording. intended, mainly because I wanted to keep BR: All that secret stuff we were talking about, returning to see Rose. She gave me complete weren’t we? access to filming her painting – so there are RW: That’s right… That’s good I love that! Yes long sequences simply watching this process, the secret stuff we were talking about… What alongside more relaxed times reading, looking was it? Where were we? at sketchbooks, talking about painting and BR: It was interesting what you were saying 60 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 61

seconds each. And then I paused and said to the audience, I have to decide which one I’m going to use and that’s the problem; because in a way, there is something about all of them. I wouldn’t leave them if I didn’t like them. They wouldn’t be there. So which one to use? And then you start using one and you wish you were using another: you finish a painting of one and you think well, “Perhaps I should have used…” But that’s good, because then you go back and you do another painting that is related. They’re paintings which are shared but they’ve all come from different drawings - mostly because you can’t decide which one to use. BR: Yeah, there are two paintings in the back studio at the moment that are both of Queen Elizabeth. They’re very different paintings, but they’re obviously from the same set of drawings. about your pace. How long it takes you to make BR: Or do you ever think, “I want to take this, RW: Those came from the same drawing. It can go or do you know that one or, oh I saw some awful a painting and the fact that they take you a I’m going to paint”. in any direction and then you wish it hadn’t and figureheads…” and you think maybe I should have lot of time. And that, for example, there’s a RW: I don’t usually. It’s because painting is therefore you do another painting from the same had a look at some. I mean I’m easy about that. painting upstairs that you were working on such a mess. It’s so demanding, in terms of drawing. Or, I’ll finish a whole series and then I don’t think you have to. I know some writers, until four in the morning. physical space. It’s physical, heavy, messy… do another painting from another drawing. But if they’re writing about something where law is RW: Well I often do… It’s not often four; it’s You’re going to be stuck in it for ten hours, it gives you something to work with. It occupies involved, will go to the law courts. And there three. Four is my record. The thing is, you start eight hours, four hours… a drawing you can the mind because you come to a decision: are other writers who don’t do that at all. something, and I might have a week unhappily just do quickly, while you’re looking out of should I go this way with the painting or that BR: They just make it up. thinking: “Which painting am I going to make the window, almost. I like that. I like just way. And it happens, whatever way it is. And you RW: The trouble with making stuff up is it’s next? I’m going to make a painting.” I don’t being able to do a drawing without being in a often think perhaps it would have been better more likely to be repetitive — because you’re know why I even think like that. I think particular place. if… you, and you’re making it up. Whereas if you sometimes I’m going to have to… Oh, you know, BR: And it does seem like, when I’ve seen you BR: It’s a bit like making a film… look at something somewhere else it gives sometimes maybe you have a show. Some work paint, you are quite faithful to the drawings. RW: It’s not! outside input, which I like. Because I don’t has to be there. And I really like working, RW: Often. I wouldn’t have been doing that BR: It is like making a film, for me, I think it’s like same same same. Unless it’s Basquiat. It’s when I want to work, and that is what I do but when you were filming, because I would have kind of similar. You start off with preliminary good he uses the term ‘Samo’ and a Crown. I do have perhaps a week where I don’t paint. I been nervous. You would maybe think it doesn’t research, and certain ideas, but they can go… BR: But you also mix things up within the could draw. I might draw in the evening, make matter, but you want something to work with painting as well. So you’ll put together two one drawing, one okay drawing and then I feel RW: Anywhere! rather than to work from. You’re not working things that no research would put together. elated. I might have three or four days where BR: …in very different directions! Unless you’re from creativity; you want something to work with RW: I could do no research, in the same I’m wondering why I’m not producing something somebody like, I don’t know, Stanley Kubrick or because you’ve got the camera on you. That’s painting. Like I might do the same sailing boat from that drawing, because I know I’m going to Hitchcock, where you’re very precise beforehand often the case but not always. I never know but put researched figureheads with it. There’s at some point. But I don’t… something has to and it’s just about executing it, which I which drawing to use, that’s the other thing…. no rule. settle. imagine some painters do. Why do you feel like I was doing a talk at Liverpool and I decided you need or don’t need research? BR: I think that’s important: there’s no rule. BR: So is it normally the drawings that are the to do my images on Powerpoint. I showed twenty RW: There’s no rule, and there’s no quality catalyst for paintings? drawings, I think, on one subject, quickly, RW: Don’t know. I think we live in a world where distinction between researched or not RW: Yes like a flipbook. Just like that. You know, two people say to you, “Oh have you seen this one, 62 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 63

I think I could use this. I was looking for RW: Yes and that was very relaxing and it was something on the web about five days ago and I pleasant and… I could take part in it. found an image of an Yves Saint Laurent model BR: What team did he support? wearing a fur coat in 1971. And I thought, RW: Tottenham “Wonderful”, and started drawing it. But I haven’t painted from it, but I might. BR: Oh! BR: Also, for example, that whole series of RW: Whereas I support Liverpool, Chelsea… Nicole Kidman paintings. I think you said you Everton…. saw that one on TV first? BR: (Laughs) You can’t support Liverpool and RW: I did. And I saw the film on television, or Everton! Love Film. Love Film I expect. And then I saw RW: Yes I can! (Laughs) Manchester City… It Nicole Kidman at the Cannes Festival on the meant that I often had one of my teams on. computer, on the web. BR: Yeah, you would have… What about BR: So the web’s become quite a good source? Southampton? RW: It’s excellent because you never know! RW: No, I didn’t do Southampton. It’s chance, and anything can come up. And the BR: That’s my team. useful thing about that for me is that I can’t RW: No researched. Everything is difficult I think. go back to it, because I lose it. Because I’m not BR: I’d love to see you do a Sissako painting. A BR: But the football paintings… You’ll probably agree. Any image you make is technologically advanced enough, I can’t tell Bamako! difficult. RW: Oh, Arsenal is another of mine. where I went to get that image. And so I can’t RW: Well, any time. I haven’t seen one for a BR: Yeah go and make a copy. A literal. It’s all filtered BR: (Laughs) But you’ve just picked all the top long time, so it would have to have been a very RW: I know what babies look like! I didn’t get a through the mind and my memory. So it can’t be teams. striking image for me to be able to resurrect. wrong. It’s true to my memory. photograph of a baby! RW: Of course, because they’ve got more BR: And you did a painting of one of my films BR: You didn’t research that baby? (Laughs) BR: Is that the same with the film paintings? currency! I could have a relationship with them. [Sack Barrow, 2011] that I was very happy RW: But I did use a drawing. Which had come out RW: Yes I don’t go back to the film. BR: But what if they were playing each other? about. of a lot of drawings of discarded babies. BR: And it’s usually an image that is just What if Arsenal was playing Liverpool? RW: I did. I liked the film. BR: Discarded… Babies that have been discarded frozen in your mind? RW: I’d go in a hierarchical kind of order. BR: (Laughs) Good! Liverpool’s my first one. I had an order. or… RW: Yeah. I don’t go and check it out. I don’t RW: And the picture worked well. know why. I could do, but that would be BR: Going back to the films, there are some RW: Drawings of babies. BR: I think it’s a fabulous painting… I gave you different. filmmakers that you’ve repeatedly gone back to. BR: Ah ok. That’s quite different. a bunch of my films. But you’d already chosen BR: Does it matter whether you like the film or That must be because you quite like them… RW: Well that’s what I meant. ‘Sack Barrow’. not? RW: Or, I very much like their photographers. BR: So, pre-drawing, there’s all this research… RW: I’d chosen the film. RW: No, not at all. BR: Yeah so when I was making the film, I got very excited BR: And then I gave you a few stills. BR: Do you watch football? RW: But then that’s a combination. Because by going through your piles of clippings and RW: Yes filming those. Are those picked out and cut out RW: Not anymore. Somebody asked me that the the film director wouldn’t presumably use a BR: I think you liked the pin ups in them. of newspapers and things, purely on a visual other day. She said, “If you watched football photographer he didn’t think worked in a way basis? with Roy [Oxlade] in the evenings for fifty that brought out the best of his… RW: Yes. I did quite a few drawings of the pin ups. They weren’t terribly good drawings. They RW: Yes years, and now he’s dead, are you still watching BR: Yes, that’s a close relationship with the football?” I said nope. photographer and the director. were a bit spindly. But they were good enough. BR: It’s not because of their content? BR: Because it was something that you did RW: And people like Paolo Sorrentino seem to BR: Yeah because there are some pin ups in RW: No, it’s on a visual basis. But normally I together? have a very good cameraman, but I’ve never used ‘Sack BARO’ that are quite coarse. don’t. I take pictures out because normally them. I haven’t ever used Sissako. 64 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 65

“Should I be looking at this?” (Laughs) and something specific, but actually in a way they’re she said, “It’s art, you’re okay”. And that was not. They’re just shapes and colours. okay. So, it’s interesting, that subtlety. RW: Yes, or subverting text. Certainly I do that. BR: Yes, that that’s allowed. But occasionally That yellow painting I’ve just done [‘Yellow you do see outside the show that there’s an Plane, Marigold Propellor (Film Notes)’, age restriction. But that’s something else I 2016,] the paint is very thick and dense and guess, beyond embarrassment into… I don’t know, luscious, and somehow smoothed over like cake explicit sexuality or something. Well it could icing. I did it with my hand! The writing at cause a kind of embarrassment for teachers the bottom of the painting that is attached to taking them around. it is scratchy and thin. It’s very legible but RW: Yes, or how they justify it with an angry it’s very jejune… it’s somehow dismissive. But parent. that’s deliberate on my part because everyone gives much more attention to text than they do BR: But in terms of your paintings, I feel to image and so I’ve reversed the weight, and like you were also talking about a kind given much more time and density of paint to of embarrassment that’s akin to a slight the image. The writing is very quickly done and discomfort in what you’re looking at. it looks very carelessly done. In fact I did it RW: Yes, there could be discomfort because we’re with a stick, and doubled it so it showed more. not sure where we should place it. Do you mean BR: But like everything in your paintings, that type? “Are we being hoaxed here? Is this things look quick. I’ve seen you paint and someone who has never learned to draw”. And connect it. Which wouldn’t matter. you are very precise, even with the text, so yes, there is that. And I think that perhaps I sometimes, if it’s not right you’ll paint it out BR: And sometimes you spelt Barrow ‘B A R O’ RW: Well there were two women sometimes, and so am in that position. and do it again. RW: That’s right. It’s a mixture. You get options. on. But the one I picked had underclothes on… RW: That picture over there of Billie Piper has Like mixed biscuits. You can pick which one you RW: Sometimes. Like spelling ‘Tarantino’ wrong. she was quite charming in her way. ‘chests’, but I don’t think it’s embarrassing. I saw no reason to spell his name wrong. But want. BR: You mentioned embarrassment and that’s BR: No I tend to spell either how the word sounds, or BR: You use written words a lot on your something we talked about in the film. That was RW: I mean they’re so fanciful… a mountain more, I get so involved in painting it that I paintings, and like you say, words do have something that I really liked. range — only dangling! leave something out — but it’s not a deliberate authority. RW: Embarrassment? I think the concept BR: They’re so pointy! insult. RW: You mean, for the viewer? They give status. of ‘embarrassment’ in inverted commas BR: And sometimes when you misspell something You think I’m bestowing status? is interesting. And it’s probably a good RW: Yes, but I don’t see that as an embarrassing you put a correction in? philosophical context. I have a friend who is painting. BR: Well I’m just wondering what you’re doing… a philosopher and she always wanted to write BR: No RW: Yes I cross out and I put another one RW: What I’m doing! Why I’m doing! I do it to a paper around the idea of embarrassment. You RW: But why? I don’t know what would be. I in or I put an omissions line. Well in ‘Sack unify a picture I think. know what it is. What is embarrassing? And think, what we’ve just been talking about is Barrow’ the word is miles above. Usually when BR: Because when you talk about your does art remove embarrassment? Is it less where you’re uncomfortable about where the you put an omission arrow it’s written just paintings, you don’t want them to necessarily embarrassing because it is in a public place, or person is, or where they are in relation. above. But just above was a window in the ‘Sack have one reading. It’s not about… if you do a Barrow’ painting so I couldn’t put it in without more so? BR: Yeah and it’s not just about the quality painting of a Nazi, the painting isn’t about muddling the clarity of the window. So I put it BR: I don’t know. You mean for the artist or the of your line. I think it’s also sometimes the Nazis. But when you use text that does imply above it. You may not have noticed. viewer? content as well, and not knowing how to read it. more of a direct meaning onto something, rather BR: I didn’t. I’ve studied that painting than an image without text. RW: No, the viewer, the general viewer. I’m not RW: You mean just a zebra or something popped carefully. sure. I know that my daughter went to a Marlene in? RW: So if you write ‘I am a Nazi’ that has more RW: You could lose that word altogether. You authority than a picture of a Nazi, you think? Dumas’ show at Tate Modern, and her partner’s BR: Yeah (laughs) Or… you put things in your could not connect it. Visually, you could not son is thirteen, and he suddenly said to her, painting which seem like they may be saying BR: Yes 66 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 67

what was going on in the painting. It’s simple something else. So to get to something that you RW: Yes, I’d have two then. Which I think is but complicated… It’s all a bit arbitrary; it want there should be a connection. Otherwise good. It’s all part of getting work done. Yes, I doesn’t matter to me very much. I like letters you’re just working very subjectively and I would keep them both. And then it would be up and numbers. I like the look of them. And I like think there should be an objective input. You for grabs whichever one was the better one. You to make them three-dimensional sometimes, or need to keep something of the original, so you might after a bit decide that the one that you scrappy or big or flowing, or Roman… you know; know something of what you want. Because you thought was not so good, the second one that it’s a good dodge. And reasonably easy, they’re don’t know how it’s going to look and to get you ended up with, you might decide later it was not like painting someone’s face. That’s much to that place, you make a lot of crappy images the best one. more difficult. You can go more wrong. A face can that you just don’t want to look at. You don’t BR: I imagine as well that if you look at the go more wrong than a letter four. A number four! want them, they’re not right, and you can’t leave photo of the first version, you decide that you BR: You said a letter four. them. So that’s often why you paint late into want to do a second painting based on the the night: because you’ve done an image you RW: I know I did, that’s why I corrected it to a earlier version. Then that second painting can’t bear and you’ve got to take it off. And number four. might also go off in a completely different as soon as you’ve taken it off and you’ve got a direction anyway. BR: (Laughs) bare canvas, you think, “Perhaps I’ll try another RW: Yes. So you haven’t fulfilled it. The whole RW: The letter four…. That’s very like ‘metaphor’ one, no that’s no good either”. So that’s how thing is very flexible and that could mean that isn’t it? you go on late! you then start and do a third one. By that time BR: It’s nice, ‘the letter four’ BR: To me it’s very similar to the process you’re so blinking fed up with that particular RW: I’m not sure. I think a picture of a Nazi is (Both laugh) of editing a film. Which is why I often work group, you can’t even start again. It’s a lot of very, very evocative of the whole business, and RW: We could stop there. That’s rather good very late into the night with a film. Because paint to go through… because even a seemingly the terror for all involved. isn’t it? A metaphor… something isn’t working and then you have to basic red isn’t a particularly easy colour to get keep working at it until you literally can’t use BR: But I think it’s more open to BR: Yeah we could… I did just want to ask you to, because it’s not one colour. And you have to your brain anymore. Editing is a similar adding interpretation. about your corrections though, which I think push it and dish it around… So to start again and subtracting until you find the thing that RW: Well it helps the viewer to be more certain are really… means you’ve got to do that again before you you’re looking for but you don’t know exactly if they see text. They’re more likely to believe. can put a single mark on it. RW: Corrections of image or word? what it is. BR: I think we see text and it guides us in a BR: I’m going to turn this off. BR: Words and image. On the drawings and in the RW: The thing about painting is that in order more specific way. So maybe the way that you use RW: Oh did you have that on? paintings, there’s so many… so I think when you to go on you have to scrape it off completely language plays with that, including all your look at your paintings for the first time you you can’t put it back the same later. BR: Well yes I thought it would be useful. misspellings and words that don’t necessarily don’t immediately recognise the layers of work BR: Yes I think that’s true. [With film] you can begin where they should begin or end where that have gone into them. In a way it’s more save a version that you can then go back to. they should end. They kind of go off the canvas. noticeable in the drawings because you have all With painting you can’t. It’s make or break! RW: Yes because I wrote on a Phillip Seymour these layers of paper, but the same happens on Hoffman inspired painting ‘Jack Goes Swimming’, the paintings, where there’s a lot of scraping RW: And it could have been better, the one you when in fact the film is called ‘Jack Goes off, painting back on top… and all of these got rid of. That’s why if you take a photograph Boating’. So that sounds like either I don’t layers of correction are actually very exact. So of it in process, which I do, you could feel that know what I’m talking about, or I’m deliberately can you talk about that? the earlier one was better. And that means that from my point of view, and as I work, I’ve got to muddling. It wasn’t anything as defined or as RW: I think if you work with images and the do that painting again and go back to where it settled as that. It was because in the painting, image that you end up with, I suppose as the was. I had Jack swimming, therefore ‘Jack Goes artist you feel that that should be the one you Swimming’ really referred to the fact that want. And to get to something that you want, BR: Would you keep the other one? So you’d Jack was swimming and it was not the title of because you don’t actually know quite what it do two? the film. But anyone looking at it would think is anyway, you only know what you’re looking at it was the title of the film. But it wasn’t. It on the painting, because it’s not a replica of wasn’t even subverting it! It was describing 68 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 69

LIST OF WORKS 28 Herr Rehlinger in White Armour (detail), 46 & 47 Left: Black Strap (Red Fly), 2014, 64 Thirties Fashion Lady, 2013, watercolour 2014, oil on canvas, 186 x 169cm oil on canvas, 184 x 332cm and collage on paper, 69 x 82cm Courtesy: Space K, Seoul Courtesy: Depart Foundation, Los Angeles 65 Top Model, 2013, watercolour on paper, Cover: Herr Rehlinger in White Armour, 2014, Photo: Adam Chard Right: NK (Syracuse Line-up), 2014, 84 x 59cm oil on canvas, 186 x 169cm oil on canvas, 185 x 333cm. 29 Herr Rehlinger in White Armour, 2014, 66 Ray’s Yellow Plane (Film Notes), 2008, Courtesy: Space K, Seoul Courtesy: Collection of Lee Seong Hye, oil on canvas, 186 x 169cm biro, pencil and collage on paper, London Courtesy: Space K, Seoul 30 x 21cm 6 & 7 Rose Wylie in her studio. Image: Installation at Chapter 2016 30 & 31 The Young & Old Herr Rehlinger, 2014, 70 Pink Bow, 2004–05, oil on canvas, Photo: Joe McGorty Photo: Ric Bower oil on canvas, 185 x 336cm 173 x 172cm 48 & 49 Theatre Painting (Black Spots), 2015, 9 Surprised Boy Meets Girl (detail), 2015, Courtesy: Collection of Bernhard Martin, Courtesy: Collection of Jack Helgesen, oil on canvas, 183 x 322cm oil on canvas, 183 x 328cm Berlin Norway Courtesy: Collection of Kevin Tsai, Taipei Courtesy: Private Collection 32 Halloween Chocs, Finger (Close up), 2015, 10 Venus (Girl), Study 6 — Dressed to Kill, oil on canvas, 186 x 170cm 50 & 51 Girl in Lights, 2015, oil on canvas, All works by Rose Wylie unless otherwise stated. All 2015, marker pen, coloured pencil and Courtesy: Space K, Seoul 209 x 328cm Courtesy: collection of Jang Young-Joong, images courtesy the artist and UNION Gallery unless collage on paper, 30 x 21cm 33 Halloween Chocs, Ghost (Close up), 2015, Seoul otherwise stated. 11 Boy Meets Girl from Pompeii (lined paper oil on canvas, 186 x 170cm from diary), 2015, coloured pencil, marker, Courtesy: Private Collection 52 & 53 Pink Skater, (Will I Win, Will I Win), 2015, oil on canvas, 208 x 329cm biro and collage on paper, 21 x 30cm 34 & 35 Halloween Chocs (Line-up), 2015, Courtesy: Collection of Hyungsin-Eunsu Kim (approx) oil on canvas, 186 x 338cm 12 Venus (Girl) (Study 5 — Venus with Courtesy: Space K, Seoul 54 & 55 Yellow Strip, 2006, oil and chalk on canvas, 183 x 777cm (5 parts) Dayglow Hair), 2015, coloured pencil, pen, 36 & 37 Sack Barrow, Factory Pin-up (film notes), Courtesy: Private Collection collage on paper, 30 x 21cm 2014, oil on canvas, 184 x 335cm 56 & 57 Yellow Strip, 2016, print on contra-vision 13 Pink Dancer, After Kirshner (Goggle Eyes), 38 & 39 Inglorious Basterds (Film Notes), 2010, vinyl installed at Chapter 2015, pencil on lined paper, 30 x 21cm oil on canvas, 181 x 338cm Photo: Adam Chard 14 Pink Table Cloth (Close-up) (Film Notes), Courtesy: private collection, London 58 Still from Ben Rivers’ Film, ‘What Means oil on canvas, 2013, 207 x 330cm 40 Ray’s Yellow Plane (Film Notes), 2013, Something’, 2015. Courtesy: Ben Rivers Courtesy: Private Collection oil on canvas, 216 x 168cm 16 & 17 Surprised Boy Meets Girl (detail), 2015, Courtesy: collection of Junelle Kwon, 59 Fragment from studio drawing by Rose oil on canvas, 183 x 328cm London Wylie, in a still from Ben Rivers’ Film, ‘What Means Something’, 2015. Courtesy: Ben Courtesy: Private Collection 41 Ray’s Yellow Plane (Film Notes) (detail), Rivers 18 & 19 Boy Meets Girl (Boots), 2015, 2013, oil on canvas, 216x168cm. oil on canvas, 183 x 328cm Courtesy: collection of Junelle Kwon, 60 Left: Figurehead with Smiling Teeth, 2015, Courtesy: The Tulip Collection London; Photo: Adam Chard watercolour, coloured pencil and collage on paper, 85 x 60cm 20 & 21 Boy Meets Girl From Pompeii, 2015, 42 & 43 Battle in Heaven (film notes), 2008, Right: Figurehead I, 2015, watercolour and oil on canvas, 184 x 335cm oil on canvas, 183 x 336cm collage on paper, 104 x 84cm Courtesy: Private Collection Courtesy: Zabludowicz Collection 61 Old Blue Figurehead, 2015, watercolour and 22 & 23 Palm Tree and Camel, 2012, oil on canvas, 44 & 45 Rainham Oast, 2014, oil on canvas, collage on paper, 91 x 76cm 181 x 328cm 184 x 332cm Courtesy: Monsoon Collection, London 62 Nicole Kidman (Pink Frock), 2015, 25 Willow Tree, 2015, oil on canvas, watercolour and collage on paper, 182 x 170cm 72 x 65cm Courtesy: Collection of Jamie McCourt 63 Footballers’ Heads, 2006, oil on canvas, 26 & 27 Black Berlin Bear’s Head, 2008, oil on 207 x 168cm canvas, 183 x 336cm Courtesy: Collection of Jack Helgesen, Courtesy: Private Collection Norway 70 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 71

ABOUT THE ARTIST Rose Wylie with UNION Gallery, London, Volta NY Art Fair, New York, USA ROSE WYLIE, b. 1934 2014 Pink Girls, Yellow Curls, Staedtische Lives and works in Kent, UK Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany Senior Royal Academician Pink Girls, Yellow Curls Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark What means something, Vous Etez Ici, EDUCATION Amsterdam, the Netherlands and 1979—1981 Royal College of Art, London, UK Choi&Lager Gallery, Cologne, Germany 1952—1956 Folkestone and Dover School 2013 BP Spotlight: Rose Wylie, Tate Britain, of Art, UK London, UK* Rose Wylie — Works on Paper, Michael SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS (2004 onwards) Janssen Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2017 Choi&Lager Gallery, Cologne, Germany Woof-Woof, Haugar Museum, Tonsberg, Neue Galerie Gladbeck, Germany Norway* Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy 2012 Rose Wylie, Big Boys Sit in the Front, Depart Foundation, Los Angeles, USA Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, UK* 2016 Queens & Chocs, Space K, Seoul, Korea* Rosemount, Regina Gallery, Moscow* Horse, Bird, Cat, David Zwirner Gallery, After Daphne, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, London, UK Philadelphia University of the Arts Tilt the Horizontal into a Slant, Gallery, Philadelphia, USA Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, UK* 2011 One Painting and Six Works on Rose Wylie, Turner Contemporary, Paper, Vous Etes Ici, Amsterdam, the Margate, UK Netherlands 2015 Dressed to Kill, VW (VeneKlasen / Picture on the wall..., Michael Janssen Werner), Berlin, Germany Gallery, Berlin, Germany* Rose Wylie, Vestfossen UNION Gallery, Art Basel, Basel, Kunstlaboratorium, Norway Switzerland Rose Wylie, NUNU Fine Art, Zhongzhen, 2010 What With What, Thomas Erben Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan New York, USA* Pink Girls, Yellow Curls, with UNION Film Notes, Union Gallery, London, UK* Gallery, London and Choi&Lager Gallery, 2008 Wear What You Like, Transition Gallery, for Cologne Art Fair London, UK* Yellow Desert Paintings, UNION Gallery, 2006 Rose Wylie Paintings, UNION Gallery, London, UK London, UK* Girl and Spiders, Thomas Erben, New 2004 Room Project, Twink & Ivy, Trinity York, USA Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK* Rose Wylie, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Lined Paper Paintings, Stephen Lacey Dublin, Republic of Ireland* Gallery, London, UK*

72 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT 73

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (2000 onwards) Rebecca Morris, Rose Wylie, Kate Rose Wylie, Jonathan Meese, Peter 2004 EAST International, Norwich Gallery, 2016 Morten Viskum — Self Portraits, Haugar Macgarry, London, UK Strauss, Ritter / Zamet Gallery, London, Norwich, UK* Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Tønsberg, Norway Chantal Joffe Beside the Seaside, UK 2003 Jerwood Drawing Prize, Jerwood Gallery, Towards Night, Towner Art Gallery, Jerwood Gallery, London, UK (co-curated 2011 Regina Gallery, Miami Art Fair, Miami, London, UK & touring Oriel Mostyn Eastbourne, UK by Rose Wylie) USA Gallery, Llandudno, UK* Beyond the Cartoon, Artuner, New York, Demolition Derby, Fold Gallery, London, 15 Years Thomas Erben Gallery, Thomas 2002 PizzaExpress Prospects, essor gallery USA UK* Erben Gallery, New York, USA project space, London, UK David Zwirner, London, UK Wet With Wet, The Observer Building, Drawing 2011, The Drawing Room, Reverse Engineering, Pearl, London, UK Mixed Signals, Christian Larsen Gallery, Hastings, UK London, UK As it Seems, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Stockholm, Sweden The Drawing Room, London, UK Evan Holloway Rose Wylie, 2 person Museum, Cheltenham, UK* Royal Academy of Arts Summer Rose Wylie, Tom Anholt, Billy Childish exhibition, The Approach, London, UK 2000 ...not enough British Art, VELAN, Turin, Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK* and Ryan Mosley: The Islanders, 2010 Women to Watch, NMWA Museum, Italy FOUND curated by Cornelia Parker, Gallery Mikael Andersen, Copenhagen, Washington DC, USA Give and Take, Jerwood Gallery, London, Foundling Museum, London, UK* Denmark* NADA Art Fair, Miami, with Thomas Erben UK RCA Secret, Royal College of Art, 2014 Collages by Modern British and Gallery, New York, USA London, UK Contemporary Artists, Wilson Stephens & In Dreams (work on paper), Timothy PRIZES and AWARDS Jones, London, UK Aviary, Transition Gallery, London, UK Taylor Gallery, London, UK Charles Wollaston Award (2015), John Moores John Moores Painting Prize 2014, Walker Paper in Practice, Moran Bondaroff, Animated Matter (work on paper), Painting Prize (2014), Paul Hamlyn Prize Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK* Los Angeles, USA Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, USA for Visual Arts (2011), Threadneedle Prize, All A Tremulous Heart Requires, Imagine, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy Bart Wells Boutique, 235 Brompton Road, Shortlisted (2009), EAST international Print ZieherSmith, New York, USA London, UK Commission (2004), The Dupree Award, Royal The Conformist, Belmacz Gallery, London, Old tin cutlery before the invention of Academy (1999), shortlisted for the Jerwood UK 2009 Turner Contemporary Open, Margate, UK* the fork, Breese Little, London, UK Painting Prize (1997) and Interiors, Towner Art 2015 Contemporary Drawings From Britain, Three-person exhibition with Philip Opening Show, NuNu Fine Art, Taipei, Gallery, Eastbourne, Joint First Prize (1993) Museum of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Allen & Jake Clark, Transition Gallery, Taiwan China* London, UK Art Everywhere, UK PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Michael Werner Gallery, Frieze Art Fair, Drawing 2009, The Drawing Room, London, UK Save Yourself!, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, UK Tate Britain, British Council, Walker Art Gallery, London, UK Jerwood Foundation, Arts Council of UK, Norwich Vita Vitale, Venice Biennale of Art, 2008 Swans Reflecting Elephants, Kate Gallery, Railtrack, Royal College of Art, Print Azerbaijan Pavilion, Venice, Italy Show-Off, LeandaKateLouise, London, UK Macgarry, London, UK Collection, University College Oxford, JCR, One Day Something Happened: Paintings 2013 Characters: Portraits and People from 2007 EAST International, Norwich Gallery, the Arts Council Collection, The Norwich, UK* York City Art Gallery, New Hall Collection, of People; Selection from the Arts Zabludowicz Collection, David Roberts Holburne Museum, Roper Gallery, Bath, Multiple Discipline, UNION Gallery, Council, Leeds City Art Gallery and Foundation, Monsoon Collection, all UK. touring, UK* UK London, UK* National Museum of Women in the Arts, Women Artists - Women Collectors, Painted Ladies, The Surgery, London, UK GIN3, 6Gins, Liverpool, UK Washington DC, Deal, Dallas, Depart Foundation, Lloyds Club, London, UK Central Line: an exhibition of selected Boy Meets Girl: Zachary Armstrong & Los Angeles, Hammer Collection, Los Angeles, all 2012 Recent British Painting, Grimm Gallery, drawings, Pittshanger Manor Museum, Rose Wylie, GYNP Artspace, Berlin, USA and Arario Museum & Space K, Seoul, Korea, Amsterdam, the Netherlands* London, UK Germany Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg, Germany. Royal Academy of Arts Summer Regina Gallery, The Armory Show & 2006 The Lowry, One love, The Football Art Frieze Art Fair, New York, USA Prize, Salford, UK* Exhibition, London, UK* * Denotes publication Painting 1, 2, 3 — Katherine Bernhardt,  74 TILT THE HORIZONTAL INTO A SLANT

ROSE WYLIE

Published by Chapter (Cardiff) Ltd, 2016 Rose Wylie would like to thank Jari-Juhani On the occasion of the exhibition Lager and William Gustafsson and her studio ‘Tilt The Horizontal Into A Slant’ assistant Edward Hewlett (for vital input 2016 curated by Hannah Firth with stretching canvases). Thanks to Ben Rivers for his dialogue, Cherry Smyth for her text and to Wales for such a warm welcome. ISBN 978-1-900029-04-9 Printed in an edition of 1000 Rose Wylie is represented by: UNION Gallery Texts by Cherry Smyth, Ben Rivers & Rose Wylie www.uniongallery.com Transcript of the conversation between Choi&Lager Gallery Ben Rivers & Rose Wylie by Freya Dooley www.choiandlager.com Edited by Hannah Firth & Rose Wylie

Catalogue © Chapter 2016 Chapter Team Texts © the credited authors 2016 Director of Visual Art / Curator: Hannah Firth All works © the artists and courtesy the Visual Art Officer / Assistant Curator: artist unless stated in the List of Works Catherine Angle Curatorial Volunteer: Caitlin Davies Design by Nelmes Design, Cardiff Technical Manager: Dean Woolford www.nelmesdesign.co.uk Gallery Assistants: Distributed By Chapter, Cardiff Richard Higlett, Thomas Williams, Jemma Roper and Paul Nash All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any Chapter, Market Road, Cardiff means electrical, mechanical or otherwise CF5 1QE, Wales, UK without first seeking the permission of the copyright owners and publisher. +44 (0) 29 2031 1055 www.chapter.org Thanks and acknowledgements Chapter would like to extend huge thanks to Rose Wylie. Also to Ben Rivers, Cherry Smyth, Jari-Juhani Lager, William Gustafsson, Birte Kleemann, Cecile Klinkers, Robyn Tomioka, Ric Bower, Toby Nelmes, Adam Chard and to the private lenders and collections without whom the exhibition would not have been possible. UK £14.95

Rose Wylie Tilt The Horizontal Into A Slant