Rose Wylie

Drawings

These drawings served as preliminary studies for paintings on display in this exhibition. Before Rose Wylie begins painting, she usually draws the visual impressions that stand out in her memory. Using just a few strokes, she reduces the image in her mind’s eye to what she perceives as its most essential qualities. The artist then begins the process of reworking the drawing until both the details, such as the profile of a face, and the overall composition are just right. The artist does not erase lines, covering them instead with new pieces of paper. As a result, some of her sketches resemble collages. “The drawing is key,” said Wylie in an interview.

These sketches also allow her to plan works such as Ballet Backdrop, in which four canvases are arranged to form a vertical rectangle. The artist cannot paint the whole piece in this configuration because the ceiling of her studio is too low. This means that she can only put the four canvases next to each other and must rely on the drawing to develop the vertical transitions.

Wylie, however, does not use a specific method – such as tracing an image from a projector – to transfer drawings onto the canvas. While she bases her paintings on preliminary studies, when she moves to the canvas, she begins the process of searching for the right form and the perfect composition anew.