Every year, it seems, another woman well beyond “a certain age” emerges from the shadows as a most talked about newcomer to the art world. This year it is surely Rose Wylie, who received an OBE on Queen Elizabeth II’s annual Birthday List. Wylie received the Order of the British Empire medal in recognition of her unique artistic practice, which draws on cultural areas such as film, fashion, literature, mythology, the news, and people she meets to create colorful, exuberant compositions that often merge socio-political and autobiographical elements.

Rose Wylie, Park and Dogs in Air Raid, [detail] 2017, from History Painting

Wylie is currently being feted with the exhibition, History Painting: Rose Wylie, which opened in March at the Plymouth College of Art galleries, and is currently on view at Newlyn Art Gallery & Exchange, both in England. The paintings, which Wylie created from 2015 to 2017, draw on her memories of studying the Pilgrims as a child and her recollection of the London Blitz, both in the 1930s, and further understanding of how historic events are revisited and revised over time.

Now 84, Wylie went to art school in the 1950s, but soon married, had children and didn’t complete her studies until she was 47. She then began painting full time, creating a unique vision of historical events filtered through her deep knowledge of art history, and popular culture including films by Tarantino and Herzog, literature from Proust to comics, news clips, and art about other art forms. Her large-scale canvases brim with the raucous glee of childhood in paintings that depict the London blitz of her youth, a frame from Kill Bill, an evocation of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and in the current show, the Pilgrims voyage to the New World. 

Rose Wylie in her studio, Photo: © Joe McGorty 

She was “discovered” eight years ago when Germain Greer sang her praises after seeing Wylie’s work at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC exhibition, Women to Watch, which featured “underrepresented and/or emerging women artists.” Info 

At the time her paintings remained undiscovered and collectable. All that has changed since her first solo show in 2012 at University of the Arts, Philadelphia, followed by another solo show at London’s Serpentine Sackler Gallery last year, and then her representation by global powerhouse gallery, David Zwirner.

In 2015, she was elected to the Royal Academy of Art, and is regarded by many as one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary painters. Info When asked how you know when a painting is finished, she said, “You don’t until you see it. Something just impels you to stop because it looks alright.” Read a review of Rose Wylie’s show at Serpentine Sackler Gallery here

History Painting: Rose Wylie continues through mid-September at Newlyn Art Gallery & Exchange. Info Photos courtesy David Zwirner Gallery