Rose Wylie

In this painting, Rose Wylie refers to the Nigerian and West African tradition known as “Vehicle Art,” which she calls Lorry Art. For the artist, it is like a traveling exhibition that you do not have to visit a museum to see. Instead, you can admire the works of art on the streets. Drivers paint their trucks with motifs from their everyday lives or with religious images. According to the artist’s source, the drivers, who have no formal artistic training, paint their trucks themselves. The artist is especially fascinated by their simplified images. In the meantime, Vehicle Art has become professionalized and, contrary to Wylie’s earlier assumption, trained sign painters now design the trucks.

The artist depicts two lions and a zebra. She saw the latter on a decorative doormat at a store in Faversham, near London. As she notes on the canvas, it is “Lorry art from F.”

The painting also testifies to Wylie’s interest in prehistoric art. Drawing plays a central role in both her work and in cave painting. Subjects are reduced to the essential, rendered in just a few lines. The compositions, however, focus on a few details that were important to the artist.