A case of Barbi-can and Barbi-can't
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My fortnightly diary entry highlights notable topics and stories from the London art scene and beyond that have caught my attention. Let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to focus on in future newsletters.
No bed of roses: Rose Wylie at the RA disappoints
The big spring exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in its main galleries is a major exhibition of paintings by Rose Wylie (until 19th April, ticketed). I’ve never liked Rose Wylie’s paintings, but I came in open-minded, and yet my visit changed nothing. In fact, I’m even more certain that her work is definitely not for me.
I came in wanting to like it as the RA has been poor at showcasing female artists in the main galleries, and shockingly, the Marina Abramovic exhibition in 2023 was their first-ever solo show of a female artist in those galleries. Rose Wylie is the first British female artist and the first female painter to be shown in the main galleries. It’s a landmark moment I’d like to celebrate.
She falls into the category of an artist who paints in a naive style that people often say, 'a child could have done that’. Even though it’s a genre I’ve never warmed to, it is very fashionable in contemporary art at the moment, and my expectation of rave reviews was met - here’s a 5* review from The Telegraph.
Defenders of this style will trot out the famous Picasso quote: “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”. The difference for me is that in Picasso’s work, we can see him progress from realism to cubism as he evolves as an artist, yet there is no evolution in style from the earliest to the latest works in Wylie’s exhibition.
The part I found most interesting was Wylie’s paintings of World War II bombs, given that she grew up experiencing the bombing, and they felt impactful, though they were limited to the first room.
While I may not appreciate the style of painting, I could have been won over if there had been an interesting message; instead, we get paintings based on movies she liked and what she had for breakfast - including a painting of a ‘well-cooked omelette’ - which feels anodyne for the type of exhibition we expect from the RA. Compare that to the last show, where Kerry James Marshall examined the Black experience, slavery, history and art history in his paintings, and which I thought was the best exhibition of 2025.
Defenders of the show will argue it’s fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that at a lesser stage. However, these are the main galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts and exhibitions shown here must be held to a higher standard and have something important to say about society or art history. By those standards, Rose Wylie’s works fall short.
A case of Barbi-can and Barbi-can’t
At the other end of the scale is the work of Beatriz Gonzalez at Barbican (until 10th May, ticketed). I knew very little about this artist, so I went in with no expectations, and I was blown away by how creative and inventive she was.
It’s an age-old tradition in Western art to copy works by the greats of art history by looking at their masterpieces, while Gonzalez had to make do with reproductions in postcards and newspapers, recreating famous artworks in her vivid style on dressers and bedside tables. At the other end of the scale, she created massive textile reproductions of Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe, and a tiled version of Picasso’s Guernica.
There are playful elements when she recreates Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’, a watery scene, on a towel, but also deeply political works looking at the victims of femicide, and displaced persons wading through water, as well as more abstract works - all in her trademark vivid colour palette.
She was an artist who drew inspiration from many sources and used a variety of materials to channel her creativity. I always love a museum showcasing an artist we know little about here in the UK, and this is one we should all discover through this exhibition. The only downside is that she died one month before the show opened, so she never had the chance to see it.
While the Beatriz Gonzalez exhibition delivers, the other two at Barbican fall short. It has had a series of exhibitions pairing Giacometti with a contemporary artist, and both those with Mona Hatoum and Huma Babha have been successes. The latest show pairs Giacometti with the works of Lynda Benglis, and it’s easily the weakest of the three (until 31st May, ticketed).
Her works are all abstract forms, and those that are white work well when in the eye-line of Giacometti’s simple figures. Yet her more colourful works feel garish next to white and grey Giacomettis. It’s as if you were covering a Giacometti sculpture with sparkly streamers. The colourful Benglis works are not great on their own, but next to these Giacomettis, they feel like an insult.
In the Curve space are the works of Julia Phillips (until 19th April, free), who creates anatomical ceramics, think of a tongue on the end of a steel rod or a brain suspended above us. I was partial to a few of them, but the Curve is a vast space, and they struggle to fill the space.
The works may have worked well in another, more intimate gallery, but here they feel lost, and it’s a case of right work, wrong place. It’s rare for Barbican to launch three exhibitions in the space of a month, so it’s all new at the venue’s exhibition spaces, even if it’s hit and miss.
The unmade bed, re-made
Below the paywall:
The return of Tracey’s bed
Mosaic Rooms is back
There’s big horses at The National Gallery
The friendliest reception you’ll get at a gallery