“Success, for me, is staying true to who you are and not deviating off a path.” Amy Sherald’s striking, visually arresting portraits capture the indefinable spirit of contemporary America. Since painting Michelle Obama’s portrait in 2018, the press were quick to portray her as an overnight success, but this undermines the strength, determination and years…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
Andy Warhol loved red. From high heeled shoes to blooming flowers and celebrity portraits, shades of blazing fire lit up his iconic artworks and made them pop. The pink crimson of Firecracker Red linen was one of his favourites, appearing as inky, infused washes, bloodshot stains and patches of flat pattern, a colour that could…
“I am looking for that space where you can’t have that singular, particular experience. It’s about what is undefined, unstable – and for me, that’s important politically.” Spidery lines whisper skeletal, architectural structures, coloured streaks swoop and swirl and ink blots become darkened clouds of soot and smoke: this is the electrifyingly complex landscape of…
Blue darkness descends across Paula Rego’s disquieting artworks, lending them a theatrical air as strange, unsettling narratives unfold. PRESTIGE linen’s deep blue mimics Rego’s midnight tone, a colour steeped in density, weight and the cloaked mystery of the night. Darkness also fills the content of Rego’s art as exquisitely drawn, macabre characters expose the menacing,…
“Painting is closest to poetry of all the arts: not being able to explain something, why does one thing sound so great next to another? You can’t put your finger on it, that’s what my work’s about.” Cecily Brown’s paintings pulsate with fleshy indulgence as thickly painted bodies writhe into and over one another, caught…
Vibrant, seductive and indulgent, crimson linen’s entrancing hue brought pulsing lifeblood into Jan Van Eyck’s iconic paintings. Red dye was rare and exotic in 15th century Europe, making it a potent symbol of luxury, wealth and prominence. In his real life portraits Van Eyck draped figures and interiors in this decadent red hue to signify…
“The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that’s also what the stereotype does.” Brutal, shocking and filled with tragedy, Kara Walker’s re-telling of black history aims for the jugular. The artist made her name with cut out silhouettes illustrating bloody, violent acts inflicted upon America’s black population, particularly women, during the American…
Vermeer was a master of understatement, crafting exquisite, enigmatic beauty from quiet scenes of domestic life. AUTUMN GOLD linen’s warm indulgent tone takes its cue from the golden light that ignites these hushed interiors and makes them shine with the gloss of precious metal. Strategically placed strands of complimentary colours including Delft blue and china…
“Repetition and revision is central to my working process, this idea of stacking and layering and building up densities and recoveries.” Ellen Gallagher is a minimalist at heart, arranging tight grids and decorative repeat patterns that echo the measured abstractions of Sol LeWitt or Agnes Martin. But lean in closer; woven tightly into the fabric…
The inky depths of INSIGNIA BLUE linen seeped dark stains into Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai’s evocative landscapes, lending them deep bass tones that hum with melodic resonance. The colour, known today as Prussian, or Berlin blue, swept across Europe in the 18th century, causing what some called a “blue fever”, as it infiltrated painting, wallpaper…
“My work has affected people over the years … because it draws people’s attention to … the things in their lives. There’s a certain amount of humility that goes with that.” Rachel Whiteread’s ghostly sculptures transform empty, forgotten space into solid mass. Drawing us to unusual, forgotten places is her forte, from the dark recesses of a childhood cupboard, the dusty space under the…
DOVE linen’s near white has just a hint of turquoise blue, mimicking the pale, salty light of JMW Turner’s stunning Venetian marine views. Known as the ‘painter of light’, Turner was entranced by Venice, with its green-blue water reflecting the sky into illusions of infinite, endless space. The floating city became a recurring theme in…
“It’s important to express oneself… provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.” The act of seeing is central to Berthe Morisot’s practice – both tangible, visible subjects and simmering psychological tensions beneath. With a canny, perceptive eye she captured scenes and people from 19th century Parisian life, famously painting women…
Warmth permeates Rembrandt van Rijn’s paintings as golden, syrupy candlelight falls and disappears into velvet brown shadows. CHOCOLATE linen mirrors the earthy and enveloping darkness in Rembrandt’s paintings, which swarms around the light and gives it torch lit radiance. Rising to prominence during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century Rembrandt made his name…
“There is no beauty, if it doesn’t show some of the terribleness of life.” Dark eyes fall into pits of despair, a shaky, misshapen hand muffles a scream and a deathly pale face seems to catch its last breath of air; such is the hauntingly compelling world of Marlene Dumas. “I’m not good at making…
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