Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange
2018
June 9–September 15, 2018
History Painting: Rose Wylie traveled to Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in England following its debut presentation at Plymouth Arts Centre and The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art (March 29–May 30, 2018). The exhibition featured works dating from 2002 to 2017 by the British artist. On view was a recent series by Rose Wylie based on the historic voyage of the Mayflower, which carried Pilgrims from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620. The paintings, which were created from 2015 to 2017, draw on Wylie’s memories of studying the Pilgrims as a child in the 1930s, and considers the changing interpretations of history. Among other works in the show were the large-scale painting Park Dogs & Air Raid (2017), first shown in the artist’s critically acclaimed solo exhibition Quack Quack at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, in 2017. The paintingrelates both to Wylie’s own experiences in London during the Blitz of World War II andto the history of Plymouth, which suffered severe bomb damage in 1941. Ben Rivers’s film What Means Something (2015), a portrait of Wylie, was screened as part of the presentation. Also included were some of the artist’s Film Notes paintings, and a selection of works on paper. History Painting: Rose Wylie was a long-term project for the exhibition’s curator, Ben Borthwick, who told Artlyst: "I have been talking to Rose about her work for over a decade . . .So when I started at Plymouth Arts Centre [as director] in 2014, this was one of the first exhibitions I commissioned. I knew Rose would be interested in Plymouth’s histories and myths and am delighted she has made a new cycle of paintings about the Mayflower to be shown with existing work on a range of themes that speak to Plymouth’s magnificent history and gritty present."
Related Events:
Wednesday, April 18, 5:30 PM The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art Join Melissa Blanchflower, curator of Rose Wylie's recent solo exhibition Quack Quack at the Serpentine Gallery in London, for a talk about the artist's work.
Thursday, May 17, 5:30 PM Plymouth Arts Centre Exhibition tour led by Ben Borthwick, artistic director and exhibition curator at Plymouth Art Centre, followed by a screening at 6:30 PM of two films chosen by Rose Wylie: Le Silence de la Mer (1949), and Sack Barrow (2011).
Saturday, June 16, and Sunday, June 17, 10 AM–4 PM Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange Join Rosanna Martin and painter Ben Sanderson for a Rose Wylie Clay Workshop.
Tuesday, August 7 Newlyn Filmhouse Newly Filmhouse will present a special screening of Tarantino’s classic film Kill Bill.
Wednesday, September 12, 1 PM St. Ives Arts Club Ben Borthwick will give a talk as part of the St. Ives September Festival in which he will discuss the production of the exhibition and his conversations with Wylie over the past decade.