went to the Royal Academy of the Arts to go see Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First. Rose Wylie creates bold paintings of her memories, alongside the things she finds interesting. Her work is full of cinema references, snapshots of her own life, memories of the Blitz, and anything that she thinks would make a good image.
Her work is often humorous. Looking at her paintings, I found myself smiling- wondering what had inspired her to create an image of this size and scale. My favorite painting is this horse (pictured above) with nonsensical anatomy. Having attended art school, Wylie was taught anatomy and other fine art skills to make her become a successful artist- however in this painting of a horse, the labeling of the anatomy purposefully makes no sense. She expresses herself through defying the rules of fine art, showing her freedom to create an image she finds appealing.
In another of my favorite paintings (pictured above), Wylie depicts Lilith. Lilith is a figure in folklore said to be the wife of Adam before Eve, made from the same clay as him. However, she refused to be subservient to him, and left him instead. Lilith is often described as the First Feminist. It was this same story that inspired Wylie to make this painting, after realising she had seen a terracotta plaque of Lilith, the Burney Relief, once before in the British Museum.
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