London - Royal Academy - Rose Wylie - The Picture Comes First

The rebel painter of the British art world.

Royal Academy 

Rose Wylie - The Picture Comes First

At the RA - Royal Academy on London's Piccadilly, the exhibition - Rose Wylie - The Picture Comes First - until April 19.   Rose Wylie OBE RA - 1934, Kent - is one of the most celebrated artists working in Britain today. This exhibition brings together Rose Wylie’s most iconic works alongside new and unseen paintings, marking her largest show to date. Now 92 years old, she remains incredibly cool and modern, with a style that feels fresh and relevant. Her art blends cinema, history and personal memory—including the Blitz—often featuring women like Elizabeth I, Marilyn Monroe and Serena Williams. Starting her career in her fifties, she has become a true cultural icon, creating bold, playful works that capture life’s small, funny and touching moments.

Park Dogs and Air Raids - 2017

“I think the war probably had something to do with it, because it was a kind of exciting moment, from the point of view of bombs coming down, and air raids and stuff. From a child’s point of view, that was quite special, quite unusual… I wasn’t really frightened, because it was going on all the time – that was what it was.”

Early Memory Series No. 2: Doodle Bug - 1998

Black Doodlebug - 2022

"I like stuff that goes across time, through trans-temporality, or whatever you want to call it. And I very much like cultures which were excluded from my art education when I was a student. They literally didn’t exist in that education. It was all determined exclusion." 

In this horse painting with labelled parts, Rose Wylie playfully mocks her traditional art-school training at Folkestone and Dover School of Art in the 1950s. Moving beyond strict anatomy and technique, she developed a freer style inspired by a wider range of influences.

Irreverant Anatomy Drawing - 2017

"...relating to 'now', as to 'appearance' and 'look' of women as far as clothes go, I like skirts, they allow for something to paint - fun for where you paint the 

legs sticking out - they can break restricting idea of 

'correct' anatomy and can call for invention..."

RW Party Clothes  (Rose Wylie) - 2016

Reclining Figure - 2010

 "I started with a drawing of the hand, and them I did an ink painting of the drawing.    And then an oil painting of all three stages in six feet across each canvas and it became a kind of a statement that drawing for me is important."

HAND, Drawing as Central - 2022

Wylie explained why she painted the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, whose highly publicised 1963 divorce case was made into a television series in 2021: “It’s not because she’s the Duchess, I don’t paint kings and queens because of their status, but because I like their outfits. In this case, the three-strand pearl necklace caught my attention. Through this object the Duchess was identified in the sex act she was engaged in with another man. It caused her to lose the divorce case… And in the end, it’s about money. Marrying for money, which is often disastrous… The text underscores the fact that the paparazzi are photographing them, that people are saying, “Oh, that’s a handsome couple”. Not that they are, they are “generally thought to be”.”

A Handsome Couple - 2022

" I like Ingres portraits more than his other stuff: as are Goya's marvellous 'black-frocked' and 'white-frocked' Duchess of Alba, and the pin-eyed Queen."

Countess of Altimara in Pale Pink and White-Frock and Daughter - 2016

"I love chance. Chance is like the break in the dotted line. 

Anything that is out of control, I like."

‘Politics and other issues are often there, if you see it like that - some of my paintings have been called ‘mediated political: But that is not what they are about. I see a good photo in the paper (or television news) and use it for its visual/formal qualities, not the politics. The politics is why it’s in the newspaper.’ 

Pink Skater (Will I Win, Will I Win) - 2015

Wylie appreciates the optical drama and contrast in the work of specific directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, as revealed by her paintings ‘Kill Bill (Film Notes)’ (2007) (which depicts a single frame from slightly different perspectives), ‘Inglourious Basterds (Film Notes)’ (2010) and ‘Brunhilde (Film Notes)’ (2024) after ‘Django Unchained’ (2012). 

Inglorious Basterds (Film Notes) - 2010

‘I do use [a] diary... as something to work with. I think for painting you’ve got to have something to work with and it’s got to be real and it’s better if it’s not manufactured, and my life is real for not manufactured, and my life is real for me, so I delve into it... So I’m making diary paintings, which are also history paintings because the diary and the history merge.’ 

Inspiration also comes from Wylie’s immediate surroundings: her home filled with objects and items that accumulate meaning for her; her “work-with-nature” garden, closely guarded by her cat, Pete; and the small community of neighbours and dwellings around her.  Daily life, whether the satisfaction of an enjoyable meal or a stimulating evening dinner with friends, provides Wylie with endless source material for both drawings and paintings. As for us all, everyday life is peppered with public events, shared through the screen or radio, mixing personal occurrences and memories with moments from popular culture or history.

NB

All quotes are by the artist

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Ca' Giustinian - Press Presentation - 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia - In Minor Keys - by Koyo Kouoh

   Press Presentation 

The 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia  

In Minor Keys -  by Koyo Kouoh

The press presentation of - The 61st International Art Exhibition -  La Biennale di Venezia - In Minor Keys - by Koyo Kouoh - May 9-November 22 - begins quietly, like a story told in a low voice shaped by the vision of the late curator Koyo Kouoh who passed away in 2025, her presence will be deeply felt throughout the exhibition. She had already imagined its structure, selected the artists, and set its tone — one grounded in care, listening, and human connection. With the support of her family, the Biennale chose to carry her project forward, honoring the work she pursued until the very end.

"We mapped practices and projects, we identified resonances, affinities, synchronicities and conversations, we extracted motifs to structure the exhibition and pillars on which to draw it. Notions like enchantment, seeding, commoning, and generative practices that invite collectivities, emerged organically."

Koyo Kouoh 

in April 2025, with her team under the shades of a mango tree at the - RAW Material Company - the cultural center founded by her.

Team Kouoh

In Minor Keys - is the title chosen by the late Koyo Kouoh for the - Biennale Arte 2026 - as specified in the curatorial text, that vision has been carefully realised by the team Kouoh assembled and trusted: Marie Hélène Pereira, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, and Rasha Salti - advisors - Siddhartha Mitter - editor-in-chief -  and Rory Tsapayi - research assistant.  Working across continents, they continued Kouoh’s method of curating as a shared, relational practice. The pivotal meeting in Dakar, held beneath a mango tree, became the emotional and conceptual anchor of the exhibition — a moment where ideas aligned, resonances emerged, and the “music” of the project could finally be heard.

The title In Minor Keys reflects Kouoh’s belief that art does not need to be loud to be powerful. Like music played softly, it asks for attention, sensitivity, and time. Rather than fixed sections, the exhibition moves through recurring motifs — shrines, processions, schools, and spaces of rest — allowing visitors to drift between works and meanings. Literary influences helped shape this rhythm, including Beloved by Toni Morrison and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, novels that move between memory, history, and imagination. Poetry also takes center stage, with live performances inspired by Kouoh’s own Poetry Caravan, affirming storytelling as a form of healing and transmission.

"Visitors are invited to slow down, to rest, and to listen — to each other, to the earth, and to themselves..."

Bringing together 111 artists from across the world, In Minor Keys celebrates connection over spectacle. Tributes to artists such as Issa Samb and Beverly Buchanan highlight art as something lived, shared, and deeply human. Visitors are invited to slow down, to rest, and to listen — to each other, to the earth, and to themselves. In doing so, the exhibition carries forward Kouoh’s lasting message: that the most meaningful transformations often happen quietly, in the minor keys of our shared humanity.

Issa Samb - 1945-2017

Beverly Buchanan

Annalee Davis

Torkwase Dyson

Pauline Oliveros

Fabrice Aragno

 Laurie Anderson

"The joy of authentic art, which so faithfully resembles real life..”

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco

 President - La Biennale di Venezia

“The joy of authentic art, which so faithfully resembles real life,” reflects Pietrangelo Buttafuoco - In Minor Keys - conceived by Koyo Kouoh, invites visitors to rediscover the human at the heart of everything — the small gestures, the connection to the earth, and the sense of proportion in life. Through her vision, art becomes a gentle guide, encouraging humility, presence, and the joy of creating with one’s own hands, reminding us that meaning and happiness often reside in the simple, tangible, and shared experiences of our daily lives."

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Maria Cristiana Costanzo

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons - Kamaal Malak

Seen at Ca' Giustinian

Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Roberto Cicutto

Debora Rossi

  the late Koyo Kouoh's husband - Philippe Mall and Cristiana Costanzo - 

La Biennale Head of Press Office

Matteo Morbidi

Amerigo Restucci

Giulio Manieri Elia

Barbara and Tonci Foscari

Luca Massimo Barbero

Stefano Zecchi and Giorgia Pea

Cristina Beltrami

Lorenzo Cinotti and Laura Scarpa

Gianni De Luigi

Petra Schaefer, Anais Nyffeler and Kathleen Reinhardt

 

Elisabetta Barisoni

Ziva Kraus

Annamaria Redolfi

Flavia Fossa Margutti

Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, Joern Brandmeyer, Marie Hélène Pereira, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo and Rory Tsapayi 

Please Note

The artwork photos published here are screenshots from the press presentation.

 

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Museo Fortuny - Antonio Scaccabarozzi - Diafanes

"Scaccabarozzi developed a novel visual language expressed in translucent and transparent membranes—sheets of acetate or polyethylene—capable of creating spaces of exploration."

Museo Fortuny

Antonio Scaccabarazzo - Diafanes

At Museo Fortuny - the exhibition Antonio Scaccabarozzi. Diafanés - until April 6 - curated by Ilaria Bignotti and Camilla Remondina, in collaboration with Galleria Clivio and Archivio Antonio Scaccabarozzi, presents one of the most rigorous and singular research paths in Italian art of the second half of the twentieth century.  The site-specific exhibition connects Antonio Scaccabarozzi -1936–2008- with the figure and legacy of Mariano Fortuny through structural affinities rather than formal analogies, exploring a shared conception of the artwork as a space of passage and experience.  Central to Scaccabarozzi’s practice is a visual language of translucent and transparent membranes—acetate and polyethylene sheets—that generate spaces of exploration. Developed from his 1970s investigations into color, scale, and calculation, these works redefine the relationship between architecture, viewer, and artistic practice.

Quantita blu oltremare con bianco - 1989

"Fascinated by its lightness, transparency and versatility, Scaccabarozzi saw polyethylene as the site enabling him to take on the problem of vision and its limits, consideration of the double, the front and back of the painting and its relationship and extension in space on a new level, to the point of making it autonomous and independent from every other artistic technique."

Ambrogio - 2001

Curators

Camilla Remondina and Illaria Bignotti

Consisting of light, translucent, colourful and transparent works, the exhibition interweaves visual arts and the semiotics and phenomenology of the image, the exhibition focuses on the works realized between the 1980s and the early two thousands, when Saccabarozzi began to use first acetates and then polyethylene as his preferred fields for the creation of events in the painted space and as sites of exploration of the relationships between architecture, the observer and the work.

Quantita di Verdechiaro - 1984

“It's the same feeling I get when visiting the Temple of Hephaestus. When I walk around it, the columns allow a glimpse of the internal wall, and from certain angles they completely close it, thus creating a magical mixture of circulating air and further protection for what is kept within.” 

Antonio Scaccabarozzi -1999 

recalling what he had perceived five years earlier in Athens

Furthermore, the two artists - Antonio Saccabarozzi and Mariano Fortuny - have in common the inspiration provided by the statuary and architecture of Ancient Greece and the study of colour hues in their calibrated potential and their assonances with the ancient. Both seem to be attentive and cultured weavers of diaphanous works, placed in the hands and eyes of the public with the request to scrutinize them and go beyond them, to see through their stratifications in the name of a contemplation filled with poetry.

Senza titolo - 1999

photo credit - Irene Fanizza - courtesy Museo Fortuny

The cycles of Free Quantities, works in which colour is released onto the transparent surface, Polyethylenes, sheets of this material cut and shaped in forms of architectural descent, and Ice-Fields, overlapping coloured plastic membranes intended to create unprecedented chromatic tones, are in an ideal dialogue with the extraordinary insights of Mariano Fortuny: from the pleat, capable of radically changing the idea and features of clothing, to the search for the iconographic alphabets of the past, to the attention devoted to the new technologies of his time.

Ice-Fields 41 - 2004

Anastasia Rouchota

Patrizia Marras and Silvia Casagrande

“limit zone of contrasting forces”

This is an exhibition that presents itself, therefore, as a plastic fresco marked by the rhythm of the degrees of the visible, in which the work becomes the diaphragm of a chromatic and seductive breath, interrogating the user as a “limit zone of contrasting forces”, as Scaccabarozzi has declared.

Provenienza sconosciuta - 2001

Chiara Squarcina

Chiara Vedovetto and Elisabetta Barisoni

Museo Fortuny  

Antonio Scaccabarazzo - Diafanes

Polietilene tagliato doppio - 2000

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