Rose Wylie, the first female painter to receive a solo exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts, discusses her career and the RA show in an interview with architect David Kohn. Wylie reflects on the historic nature of the invitation, crediting artist Cornelia Parker for championing the opportunity, but emphasizes that she wants her work to be judged as painting first, not through the lens of gender. She explains her choice of large-scale canvases as a response to the male-dominated art world when she returned to painting, and describes her decision to paint the RA's gallery walls white to maintain architectural coherence and avoid what she calls 'fashionable' colored interiors.
The interview matters because it captures a landmark moment for the Royal Academy, which had never before given a solo show to a female painter in its 250-year history. Wylie's comments on scale, composition, and institutional presentation offer insight into the thinking of a major contemporary British painter at a pivotal point in her career. The conversation also touches on broader issues of gender equality in the art world and the evolving relationship between painting and exhibition architecture.