Rose Wylie

Katharine Stout, Jennifer Higgie

New
Book cover for Rose Wylie
Image for variant 9781915815224
Book cover for Rose Wylie
Image for variant 9781915815224

Rose Wylie

Rose Wylie

Katharine Stout, Jennifer Higgie

View full details

Description

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, from 28 February to 19 April, 2026, this book brings together leading authorities on Rose Wylie's work and many of her distinct images.

Rose Wylie OBE RA (b. 1934) lives and works in Kent. She paints from memory, frequently taking her imagery from mass media. Her large works on unstretched, unprimed canvas appear simple at first glance, but close inspection reveals them to be subtle meditations on the nature of visual representation. She regularly brings together apparently disparate images, creating visual rhymes and resonances that coalesce into unified compositions.

This new book, the catalogue of a large-scale exhibition at the Royal Academy, brings together leading authorities on Wylie's work and a host of her unmistakable imagery.

About the Author

The independent curator Katharine Stout was Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate Britain and Head of Programme and Deputy Director at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Jennifer Higgie is a novelist, screenwriter, art critic and editor of Frieze magazine. Frances Morris was Director of Tate Modern from 2016 to 2023.

Critical Reviews

"Wylie is prized for her vast, broad-brush canvases that playfully depict people and scenes that she picks up, magpie-style...." -- "Harper's Bazaar"

"Looking at work by the British artist Rose Wylie, the words 'carefree' and 'genuine' come to mind. Her style is childlike, elementary in its execution, and instantly recognizable." -- "Air Mail"

"Pop culture, film references, football, art dinners, newspaper stories, biblical references - all are fodder for her rich imagination and love of life, a mischievous retelling of her traditional art-school background....[Wylie's] selection, and her paintings, are defined by a freedom, from hierarchy and expectation. Wylie is an artist confident and joyful in her identity...."-- "Exhibition review, Wallpaper"

"Wylie's work is irreverent, irrepressible, anarchic - and intensely charismatic. This is a blast." -- "Exhibition Review, The Telegraph"

"....Objects, eras, motifs and characters mingle easily in Wylie-world. Viewers usually fall for her paintings because they are so full of self and energy, but it is her ability to create collisions between wildly different things that is most remarkable, and most likely to take up permanent residence in your mind...."-- "Exhibition review, Financial Times"

Publishing Information

Publisher: Royal Academy of Arts
Pub date: 2026-04-14
Length: 160 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.