Epifanio
Epifanio 1 Epifano 2 Epifanio 3 Epifano 4 Epifanio 5 Epifanio 6 Epifanio 7 Epifanio 8 Epifanio nr 9 Epifanio nr 10 Epifanio nr 11 Epifanio 12
Epifanio 13 Epifanio 14 Epifanio 15 Epifanio 16 Epifanio 17 Epifanio 18 Epifanio 19 Epifanio 20 Epifanio 21      
All kinds of feedback is welcome. CONTACT: augustkunnapu@gmail.com
800

Eestikeelsed artiklid

EDITORIAL

EPIFANIO RECOMMENDS

INTERVIEW WITH FRENCH PAINTER MICHEL CASTAIGNET
August Künnapu

PAINTINGS OF LUDMILLA SIIM

INTERVIEW WITH ROSE WYLIE
Harry Pye

MY FRIEND LEMBIT
Vilen Künnapu

INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER KERSTI UIBO
Jürgen-Kristoffer Korstnik

A mural by Epifanio Monarrez in Chicago

TEAM

Interview with Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie.
Photo: Jo Moon Price, 2020.

Rose Wylie. Under the sea

Rose Wylie. Under the Sea.
Mixed media, 2020.

Rose Wylie. Mexican Popular Religious Genre 3

Mexican Popular Religious Genre 3.
Pen on paper, 2020.

October 2020 marked the 80th anniversary of John Lennon’s birth. Because Lennon is someone I still turn to for both comfort and inspiration I decided to curate a show that celebrated his life and work. 80 artists agreed to make some special for the show which took place at The Stash Gallery in East London. The artists included Rose Wylie (1934) who contributed a lovely drawing called I’d Like To Be Under The Sea – the title came from lyrics in The Beatles song, Octopus’s Garden.
I first met Rose in October 2010 when we both had work in an art show curated by our mutual friends Luke Gottelier and Francis Upritchard. Over the last decade Rose has enjoyed great success with solo shows at The Jerwood Gallery in Hastings, Tate Britain, and The Serpentine Gallery. Like many people I believe she’s one of the best painters working in Britain so I was delighted when she agreed to answer some questions for Epifanio.

Are there any books about art or about artists that had a big impact on you, or that you think everyone should read?

Ages ago I read and very much liked the book Jack Lindsey on Cezanne. Jack Flam’s Matisse on Art is endlessly useful. Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was what everyone was reading;  and a knockout book for shape and structure,  and critical evaluation of music is Thomas Mann’s  Dr Faustus: and I especially remember him for sticking his neck out over the consideration of the relative positioning of two great composers.

Do you have artist friends who you get into heated debates with about painting? Or, when you get together with artist friends do you tend to talk about everything except painting?

Usually the people I don’t know very well are the ones I get into for lively exchange.

What are your thoughts on Philip Guston’s Tate Modern show being postponed because of fears about his paintings that feature KKK imagery?

It’s easy for me to spout off about this as I am an artist and huge fan of PG and not a museum person. I might think differently if I were. But I think great art should be shown as often as possible, and he is a great artist.  His work transforms the subject: how he paints is the thing, not what he paints, and the public should try to get this: it is a painting; plus every museum will ram that in. The criticism that he is a white artist cashing in on racial problems doesn’t apply as his paintings were made too long ago for this to stick. And anyway he was not supporting the Ku Klux Klan, but exposing it.   The public should also learn an artist does not necessarily in any way support or endorse what he/she paints, and Guston here certainly doesn’t.   So I think this is completely the right time to have his work up everywhere, and not postpone it; and in showing him, perhaps the museums could find him their solution to the whole bother, at the same time pushing a contemporary value of great painting.

Do you have a favourite painting in the National Gallery that you always pop into see when you’re near Trafalgar Square?

Giovanni di Paulo has always been a favourite, that John the Baptist on curved board with a flower each side, I've loved it since being an art student, but there are many others.

Can you name three painters alive and making work that you rate?

Amongst others, Alida Cervantes, smashing; Sam Doyle, who I know is dead, but I love looking at his work, all of it I’ve seen; and Judith Bernstein, because she is so different from me, but so vivid.

What films have inspired your paintings?

Carl Dreyer (can’t remember titles); Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction; Carlos Reygadas’ Battle in Heaven, Japon, Silent Light; Pedro Almodovar’s Volver, Juliet; François Ozon’s 5x2; Eric Rohmer’s Romance of Astrea and Celadon; Percy Adlon’s Bagdad Cafe, Rosalie Goes Shopping; Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales; Claudia Llosa’s Milk of Sorrow, Madeinusa; Bela Tarr’s The Man From London; Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done; Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Jack Goes Boating; Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana; Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark; Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt; Walt Disney’s Snow White; Jane Campion’s Sweetie; etc.

Who was your favourite tutor or which individual did you learn the most about painting from? And what was good about the way they taught you?

There was a painting tutor at Folkestone School of Art who gave me a demo on how to paint clouds. It has stuck in my mind, but I thought it was rubbish then and still do, as obviously there’s no one way.

Rose Wylie. Party Clothes

Party Clothes (RW & Cat).
Oil on canvas, 2016.

Is part of the reason you paint because you have a need to escape reality?

Perhaps.

Do you see your paintings as being a form of diary?

Not sure how I see them, but in some way some of them are.

What time of day (or night) are you most likely to paint?

Often put things off, then paint late into the night, no interruptions.

What can you tell me about the most recent painting you did?

I made a drawing of how I looked in the glass just after I’d washed my hair, and put nothing controlling on it, and it all frizzled up fuzzy and looked much shorter than usual. I had lipstick on, but no glasses, and my eyes looked like pinholes in a white face. I quite like difference, and big lustrous eyes are usually what’s liked, so the image with dots for eyes was something ok to work with. The drawing became a painting. I cropped it just above the eyes, and stuck a too small arm in. It was 6 ft x 12 ft (183 x 366 cm), a front view, the same size as a back view of a head I’d done for Battle in Heaven years ago. (I like chance-circular and continuation when it turns up). The painting is for New York, and there’s a lot of space, so as a 3-canvas work would fit ok, and I hadn’t done one, (I also like a situation-reason). I have added another 6 ft (183 cm) canvas on the right, apparently unconnected, (I like a contrast), but has the same red lipstick-colour and black eye-colour. It is of a red and black molewrench I have just found in a drawer, while looking for some razor blades for my stanley-cutter: another unexpected new

Do you believe that, in order to make art, the hand, the eye and the heart all need to be involved?

I suppose they do, but I never think like that.

Rose Wylie. Red Painting Bird, Lemur & Elephant

Red Painting. Bird, Lemur & Elephant.
Oil on canvas, 183 x 499 cm, 2016.

Rose Wylie. The Tool

The Tool.
Oil on canvas, 2020.

Rose Wylie. K (Syracuse Line-Up)

NK (Syracuse Line-Up). Oil on canvas, 185 x 333 cm, 2014.

Rose Wylie. Fluffy Hair

Fluffy Hair. Oil on canvas, 183 x 366 cm, 2020

 

For more info on Rose Wylie visit The Union Gallery website:
http://www.union-gallery.com/content.php?page_id=872
And also the David Zwirner Gallery:
https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/rose-wylie

HARRY PYE
is a writer, curator and painter who lives and works in London. See also his postcards from London, São Paulo and Leeds in previous issues of Epifanio.