Four English Painters Explore Figurative Invention in Copenhagen's 'The Islanders' Exhibition
From January 9 to February 21, 2015, 'The Islanders' was showcased at Galerie Mikael Andersen in Copenhagen, featuring four artists from England: Rose Wylie (born 1934), Billy Childish (born 1959), Ryan Mosley (born 1980), and Tom Anholt (born 1987). Wylie, who won the John Moores Painting Prize in 2014, begins her process with written descriptions that she then illustrates, blending humor and fragmented text. Anholt's pieces exhibit a sense of physicality through layered underpainting, while Childish presented a reproduction of Norman Wilkinson's 1936 work, 'The Great Banks After Wilkinson.' The exhibition's title nods to the artists' English heritage and the influence of Peter Doig. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art recently highlighted figurative painters rich in psychological symbolism.
Key facts
- Exhibition 'The Islanders' ran from January 9 to February 21, 2015 at Galerie Mikael Andersen in Copenhagen
- Featured four English painters: Rose Wylie (b. 1934), Billy Childish (b. 1959), Ryan Mosley (b. 1980), Tom Anholt (b. 1987)
- Rose Wylie won the John Moores Painting Prize in 2014
- Wylie's method involves writing descriptions of subjects before illustrating them in paintings
- Exhibition title references artists' English origins and Peter Doig's exoticized subject matter
- Louisiana Museum of Modern Art recently showed Philip Guston, Emil Nolde, and Paula Modersohn-Becker
- Billy Childish's 'The Great Banks After Wilkinson' is a direct copy after Norman Wilkinson's 1936 work
- Tom Anholt's paintings show influence from Brooklyn-based painter Katherine Bradford
Entities
Artists
- Rose Wylie
- Billy Childish
- Ryan Mosley
- Tom Anholt
- Philip Guston
- Emil Nolde
- Paula Modersohn-Becker
- Norman Wilkinson
- Peter Doig
- Katherine Bradford
- Ingres
- Roger Price
- Bella Tarr
Institutions
- Galerie Mikael Andersen
- Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
- Frieze Magazine
- artcritical
Locations
- Copenhagen
- Denmark
- Brooklyn
- England
- Germany