Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First

This spring, the Royal Academy of Arts will unveil the most comprehensive exhibition ever dedicated to celebrated British painter Rose Wylie RA. Opening on 28 February 2026, Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First brings together more than 90 works, spanning early autobiographical pieces, major series from across her career, and new paintings and drawings being shown for the first time.

Known for her bold, instinctive approach to painting, Wylie draws inspiration from a vast range of sources — art history, ancient cultures, cinema, literature, celebrity imagery, news media, and her everyday surroundings. The exhibition traces her evolution as an artist through thematic rooms that reveal her distinctive visual language: raw, humorous, deeply personal, and profoundly aware of the world around her.

Visitors will begin their journey with works inspired by Wylie’s memories of the Blitz and post-war childhood, including Rosemount (Coloured) (1999) and Wing Tips and Blue Doodlebugs (2022/23). The exhibition then moves through her return to painting in the 1980s after raising a family, showcasing the acclaimed Room Project (2002–03), where Wylie established herself with large-scale, immersive compositions filled with playful energy and everyday characters.

A significant section explores Wylie’s fascination with cinema, bringing together pieces from her renowned Film Notes series. Works such as Kill Bill (Film Notes) (2007) and Natural Born Killers, Long-shot (Film Notes) (2018) highlight her ability to transform cinematic moments into vivid, fragmented visual narratives.

The exhibition also foregrounds Wylie’s daily practice of drawing — the cornerstone of her process. Newspaper photographs, online imagery, passing impressions, her garden, her cat Pete, and scenes from daily life all feed into a personal archive of visual memory that resurfaces, sometimes years later, in her paintings.

The show concludes with four monumental monochrome animal portraits rendered directly with the artist’s hands. These tactile, gestural works celebrate Wylie’s belief that the picture comes first, placing emotion, movement, and instinct at the centre of her artistic practice.

Curated by Katharine Stout, Tarini Malik, and Colm Guo-Lin Peare, this major exhibition continues the RA’s tradition of showcasing leading Royal Academicians, following landmark presentations of Marina Abramović, Antony Gormley, Anselm Kiefer, Ai Weiwei, and others.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, featuring essays by Katharine Stout, Jennifer Higgie, and Frances Morris.

Dates & Opening Hours

Press View: Tuesday 24 February 2026, 10:00–13:00
Public Exhibition: 28 February – 19 April 2026
Opening Hours:
• Tuesday–Sunday: 10:00–18:00
• Friday: 10:00–21:00