Fiona Rae
Encyclopedia
Fiona Rae is a British
artist. Her work is firmly identified with the Young British Artists
(YBAs) who rose to prominence in the 1990s.
Rae employs a battery of painterly marks, graphic signs and symbols, her paintings explore the profusion of our visual and material culture and take the viewer on an exhilarating ride through the possibilities of paint.
In recent work the mood is ambiguous – flowers, hearts and cartoon characters might imply a sweet, almost cloying world, yet Rae’s dark and brooding palette, combined with virtuoso washes and veils of paint, evoke dissolution and decay. The paintings seem to suggest the seductions, contradictions and disappointments of contemporary life and culture.
of Art to study a Foundation Course (1983–84) and Goldsmiths College
(1984–1987), where she completed a BA (Hons)
Fine Art.
’s Freeze in London’s Docklands, which helped launch a generation of artists who became known as Young British Artists.
In 1991 she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize
, and in 1993 she was nominated for the Austrian Eliette Von Karajan Prize for Young Painters.
She was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts
in 2002 and is referred to as a Royal Academician allowing the use of R.A. after her name. In 2002 she was appointed a Tate Artist Trustee between 2005 and 2009. She was commissioned by Tate Modern
to create a 10 metre triptych
Shadowland for the restaurant there in 2002.
Rae is represented by Timothy Taylor Gallery, London; Buchmann Galerie, Berlin; Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and The Pace Gallery, New York. Rae has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries internationally and her work is held in prestigious public and private collections worldwide.
Rae’s works are also held in the following collections:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
artist. Her work is firmly identified with the Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
(YBAs) who rose to prominence in the 1990s.
Rae employs a battery of painterly marks, graphic signs and symbols, her paintings explore the profusion of our visual and material culture and take the viewer on an exhilarating ride through the possibilities of paint.
In recent work the mood is ambiguous – flowers, hearts and cartoon characters might imply a sweet, almost cloying world, yet Rae’s dark and brooding palette, combined with virtuoso washes and veils of paint, evoke dissolution and decay. The paintings seem to suggest the seductions, contradictions and disappointments of contemporary life and culture.
Life and career
Rae was born in Hong Kong and also lived in Indonesia before moving to England in 1970. She attended Croydon CollegeCroydon College
Croydon College, established in 1895, is a Further Education and Higher Education institution in the London Borough of Croydon.Located in East Croydon, it is made up of a Further Education College and a Higher Education College.- Further Education :...
of Art to study a Foundation Course (1983–84) and Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
(1984–1987), where she completed a BA (Hons)
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
Fine Art.
Young British Artist
In 1988 she participated in Damien HirstDamien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
’s Freeze in London’s Docklands, which helped launch a generation of artists who became known as Young British Artists.
In 1991 she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
, and in 1993 she was nominated for the Austrian Eliette Von Karajan Prize for Young Painters.
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 2002 and is referred to as a Royal Academician allowing the use of R.A. after her name. In 2002 she was appointed a Tate Artist Trustee between 2005 and 2009. She was commissioned by Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
to create a 10 metre triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
Shadowland for the restaurant there in 2002.
Rae is represented by Timothy Taylor Gallery, London; Buchmann Galerie, Berlin; Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and The Pace Gallery, New York. Rae has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries internationally and her work is held in prestigious public and private collections worldwide.
Public Collections
The Tate Collection holds five works by Rae. These are:- ‘Untitled (yellow)’, 1990
- ‘Untitled (grey and brown)’, 1991
- ‘Untitled (emergency room)’, 1996
- ‘Night Vision’, 1998
- ‘Shadowland’, 2002
Rae’s works are also held in the following collections:
- Arts Council of Great Britain, UK
- Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
- Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery; 'Dark Star', (2000)
- British Council, London, UK
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
- Carré d’Art - Musée d’art contemporain, Nimes, France
- Contemporary Art Society, London, UK
- Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
- Essl Museum - Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Austria
- Fondation - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
- Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (FNAC), Paris, France
- Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain d'Ile de France, France
- Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain d’Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
- Fundació ‘la Caixa’, Barcelona, Spain
- Government Art Collection, London, UK
- Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum fur Gegenwart: Marx Collection, Berlin, Germany
- The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThe Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
, Washington D.C.; 'Sunburst Finish' (1997) - Musée Départemental de Rochechouart, Haute-Vienne, France
- Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
- Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; 'Untitled (grey with rectangles)'
- Sintra Museum of Modern Art: The Berardo Collection, Sintra, Portugal
- Southampton City Art GallerySouthampton City Art GalleryThe Southampton City Art Gallery is an art gallery in Southampton, southern England. It is located in the Civic Centre on Commercial Road.The gallery's art collection covers six centuries of European art history, with over 3,500 works. It is housed in an example of 1930s municipal architecture...
, England (6/1998); Untitled - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
- Warwick University Art Collection, Warwick, UK
Exhibitions
Following the success of ‘Freeze’ in 1988, Rae’s paintings have appeared in numerous solo and group shows internationally.Solo shows include:
- ‘Fiona Rae’ Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (1992)
- ‘Fiona Rae’ at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1993-1994)
- ‘Fiona Rae’, Carré d’Art Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes, France (2002 - 2003)
Group Shows include:
- The British Art Show, 1990, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, Leeds City Art Gallery, Hayward Gallery, London, UK 1990;
- Aperto, 44th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy,1990;
- Turner Prize Exhibition 1991, Tate Gallery, London, UK;
- Unbound, Hayward Gallery, London, 1994;
- Nuevas Abstracciones, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain, 1996;
- Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK ; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany; Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA, 1997–2000;
- Hybrids: International Contemporary Painting, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK , 2001
- Pictograms, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany, 2006;
- Fiction@Love, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, China, 2006; and
- Classified: Contemporary British Art from Tate Collection, Tate Britain, London, 2009
Publications
Aside from numerous exhibition catalogues, Rae’s paintings are discussed in many publications including:- 2010 - Pooke, Grant, Contemporary British Art: An Introduction, London, UK: Routledge
- 2010 - Barret, Terry, Making Art: Form and Meaning, New York, USA: McGraw-Hill Publishers
- 2009 - Painting Today, Tony Godfrey (ed.), London, UK, Phaidon Press
- 2007 - Open Space: Art in the Public Realm in London 1995–2005, Jemima Montagu (ed.), London, UK, Arts Council England and Central London Partnership
- 2007 - The Turner Prize. Revised Edition, Virginia Button, London, UK, Tate Publishing
- 2006 - Tate Modern: The Handbook, Frances Morris (ed.), texts by Michael Craig-Martin, Andrew Marr and Sheena Wagstaff, London, UK, Tate Publishing
- 2004 - Tate Women Artists, text by Alicia Foster, London, UK, Tate Gallery Publishing
- 1997 - Button, Virginia, The Turner Prize, London, UK, Tate Gallery Publishing
- 1999 - Stallabrass, Julian, High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s, Verso London and New York
- 1996 - The 20th-Century Art Book, London, UK, Phaidon Press
- 1996 - Morgan, Stuart, “Fiona Rae: Playing for Time”, What the Butler Saw, Ian Hunt (ed.), London, UK: Durian Publications
External links
- Artists site
- Paintings, list of exhibitions and literature
- The Pace Gallery
- Timothy Taylor Gallery
- Buchmann Galerie
- Fiona Rae on Artcyclopedia