Rosy Wilde
Encyclopedia
Stella Vine
Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in...
in a former butcher's shop in east London to showcase work by emerging artists. Vine was not making money and was expecting bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
s, when a painting by her of Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
, was bought from a colleague's gallery by Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
to star in his New Blood show. This led to further sales for Vine. She sold the gallery at auction in October 2004. In 2006, after she had had "her fingers burnt" by the commercial gallery world, where, she said, "you will get shafted, fucked over left, right and centre", she reopened the gallery in central London's Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
district.
East End of London
Stella Vine
Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in...
sold her council house, which she had bought with money from working as a stripper, and purchased a disused butcher's shop, which she converted into a gallery. In August 2003, she opened the Rosy Wilde gallery, an artist-run project space, to showcase the work of emerging artists, at 139 Whitecross Street in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
, giving it "immediate Brit Art cache", according to the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
; Jessica Lack of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
said it was "small but well formed". The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
journalist, Andrew Billen, said the street was "bohemianised" but had remained working class. Vine said she loved "the cosmopolitan chaos" of the area. She lived above the gallery, whilst her son Jamie used the basement to do what(?).
In November 2003, Vine was in shock over her mother's recent death. She was also experiencing rejection in her private life: "I was just falling in love right, left and centre with these gorgeous young artists who came in the gallery. They’d see this fat old stripper, this nutter who runs a butcher’s shop that she thinks is an art gallery, and who thinks she’s some artist but hasn’t even been to art school... They probably thought, "Christ, who is this woman who’s texting me 20 times a day?" In 2009, Vine said, "In the beginning it was a real battle to assert any kind of intelligence at all." She said that she poured out her emotions in interviews and came across as "a bit wild"; her mother had just died and "you are in a bit of a crazy place after something like that."
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
, had written to the princess's butler, Paul Burrell
Paul Burrell
Paul Burrell, RVM is a former servant of the British Royal Household. He was a footman for Queen Elizabeth II and later butler to Diana, Princess of Wales...
, telling him that she was afraid she would be killed in a car crash. Vine painted 30 pictures of Diana, but, lacking space to dry or store them, she put them all except one in a skip. This painting, Hi Paul Can You Come Over, which showed Diana with "blood pouring from her mouth" and begging Burrell for help, was, said Catherine Deveney in Scotland on Sunday
Scotland on Sunday
Scotland on Sunday is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by The Scotsman Publications Ltd and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate The Scotsman...
, "about two women. One who lived in Kensington Palace. And the other who lives down the Whitecross Street." Vine said about it, "I also see myself."
On 28 November 2003, Gina Birch
Gina Birch
Gina Birch is an English musician and film-maker, probably best known as a founding member of The Raincoats.Born in Nottingham where she attended Nottingham High School for Girls, Birch formed The Hangovers and released an album, Slow Dirty Tears, in 1998. In 2002 and 2007 she performed live at...
of rock band The Raincoats
The Raincoats
The Raincoats are a British post-punk band. Ana da Silva and Gina Birch formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.-Career:...
performed live at the opening of group show Fanclub, curated by Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design...
. The gallery web site said, "Rosy Wilde opens the door and invites you into her teenage bedroom":
- Fanclub delves into the psyche of the fan, presenting a series of works by artists who are prepared to give themselves over and examine their obsessions.
The City and Islington News said the "upstairs of the Rosy Wilde gallery is transformed into one such teenager's bedroom" for the Fanclub exhibition. The joint show included eight young artists who "littered" two floors with their art work, conjuring up the sense of fan "memorabilia" of icons such as Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
, Billy Fury
Billy Fury
Billy Fury, born Ronald William Wycherley , was an internationally successful English singer from the late-1950s to the mid-1960s, and remained an active songwriter until the 1980s. Rheumatic fever, which he first contracted as a child, damaged his heart and ultimately contributed to his death...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, delving into the "psyche of the besotted fan". Lomax's painting of a group of crazed fans was described as "touching", and Yolanda Zappaterra's work as "tongue in cheek". The exhibition summed up as being "successful as a self indulgent wallow in the nostalgia of our formative years."
Vine was finding funds through occasional stripping and "seeing sugar daddies a couple of nights a week," but was "on the verge of giving up because I wasn't making any money." She had not paid any business rates for a year, and was expecting the arrival of bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
s. She thought that no one liked what she was doing.
Saatchi purchase
Vine exhibited her sole remaining painting of Diana, Hi Paul Can You Come Over, in February 2004 at the Transition GalleryTransition Gallery
Transition Gallery is a contemporary art project space in Hackney, East London. It is run by artists Cathy Lomax and Alex Michon. Transition Editions the gallery's publishing arm produces publications to accompany shows as well as two bi-annual magazines Arty and Garageland.-History:Transition...
in North London, run by Lomax, from whom Vine's painting was bought by Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
to star in his forthcoming show New Blood. The money from the purchase went directly to the bailiff, Mr Quinn; the bailiffs, acting for Islington London Borough Council
Islington London Borough Council
Islington London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Islington in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Islington is divided into 16 wards, each electing three councillors...
, gave Vine an additional month's grace to pay the amount outstanding, after they had heard of the Saatchi's purchase, which Vine said had transformed her life. She was "bombarded" with phone calls from galleries wanting to show her work and from art collectors seeking to cash in on the "Saatchi effect"; within a week she had sold six paintings. Saatchi also bought more work from her. Vine said, "I can paint and pay the bills. I don’t need any more than that."
Deveney visited the gallery; Vine "cheerfully" told her, "It's a tip." Deveney said it was "fascinating, like being placed slap bang in the middle of a person’s entire life" with the walls whitewashed and employed as an improvised diary—"Tuesday 4pm" written in black above the bed— large pink cushions on the big bed, boxes, papers, suitcases and propped-up canvases on the floor, a loaded clothes rail, and art materials on a table.
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
journalist, Andrew Billen, visited Vine in June 2004, and said the gallery was a clue that "Saatchi's Midas touch has not turned Stella's life to gold." On the day of his visit, the front door was partly open to allow a street seller to keep his goods inside the "scuffed" gallery space, which was empty except for a gas cooker covered in graffiti text from the poetry of Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
. He said her son's basement accommodation was "dark dungeon quarters" accessible by an oubliette, and "upstairs festers a beyond-squalid kitchen". Vine's bedroom was on the next floor and reachable by a ladder to replace the stairs which had fallen down.
Her studio on the first floor contained a Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
laptop computer, a chair, and a cat sitting on an old mattress on white-painted floorboards. Billen said, "This is not cheerful artistic anarchy; it is emotional chaos." The studio walls were covered with work from her show Prozac and Private Views, including Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
on circular wood, and images of Denis and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
, Kitten from Big Brother and Vine's aunt Ella.
By June 2004, Vine had stopped answering phone calls, as she was in debt for £80,000, excluding money due on the property, and "It seems every call I get now is from someone saying I owe them money." She listed the debts as comfort shopping on credit cards, loans, council tax, her car and parking fines, and said she found this very depressing: "I am a very depressed, manic person." The media attention following Saatchi's purchase of her Diana painting had left Vine depressed and even suicidal: she said the "tremendous love" she had for her son Jamie had kept her going.
On 1 July 2004, the show James Jessop and Jasper Joffe opened. The Evening Standard]] reviewed the show, commenting that Jessop, who worked as a Group 4
Group 4 Securicor
G4S plc is a global security services company headquartered in Crawley, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest security company measured by revenues and has operations in more than 125 countries...
security guard for his day job, had exhibited alongside Vine in Saatchi's New Blood exhibition and that his talent was for speed painting having once exhibited 72 canvasses created in 72 hours. Jessica Lack said in The Guardian of the show: "Bright, splattered and buzzing with energy, the paintings of these two young artists will certainly challenge your visual senses".
Closing
A previous partner paid Vine a surprise visit, which she found emotionally disturbing. When he moved to Spain, she sold her property, then moved to a rundown Spanish farmhouse with her son Jamie, their cat and £20,000 worth of paint and canvas. She said, "It was typical Stella, running away when things get tough." The gallery went at auction, in October 2004, for £330,000, which the agents SavillsSavills
Savills plc is a global real estate services provider listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. They have an international network of more than 200 offices and associates throughout the Americas, the UK, continental Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle...
said was "quite bullish for the area",
Soho
Ann Summers
Ann Summers is a United Kingdom-based retailer specialising in sex toys and lingerie, with over 140 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain. In 2000, Ann Summers acquired the Knickerbox brand, a label with an emphasis on more comfortable and feminine underwear, while...
sex shop, in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, London, at 79 Wardour Street
Wardour Street
Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street.-History:...
, with the entrance in Tisbury Court. She held exhibitions for artists such as Jemima Brown whose show at Rosy Wilde was described as "spooky and unhinged". Other artists to exhibit were Annabel Dover, Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design...
and Michael Crowe whilst show titles included Force Fed Brown Bread, Lux, Give Me Your Blacklisted and Vignettes.
Vine said that whenever she had been offered gallery representation the arrangement had broken down, and that "The art world is really exactly the same as the sex industry: you have to be completely on guard, you will get shafted, fucked over left, right and centre." She qualified on Saatchi, saying he had acted "entirely honourably".
She said that her priority was independence, which was the only context in which she was able to function viably as an artist, so that she preferred "running a cottage industry and maybe earning £50,000 a year" to earning hundreds of thousands but at the cost of participating in a manipulative system and losing independence of action.
Exhibitions
| Year | Start | End | Show | Artists | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosy Wilde in East London | |||||||
| 2003 | Jul 31 | Aug 31 | Olena | Robert Ellis, Sigrid Holmwood, Laura Lancaster, Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design... , Kate Lowe, Kev Rice, Stella Vine Stella Vine Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in... , Rachel Warriner. |
|||
| 2003 | Sep 5 | Oct 4 | Vaguely Romantic | Robert Ellis, Tanya Fairey, Sigrid Holmwood, Laura Lancaster, Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design... , Fiona Lumbers, Dave Smith, Isabel Young |
|||
| 2003 | Oct 24 | Nov 22 | YKK | Kev Rice | |||
| 2003 | Nov 25 | Nov 25 | King | Performance: Mark Wilsher | |||
| 2003 | Nov 29 | Dec 21 | Fanclub | Annabel Dover, Sarah Doyle, Antonio Gianasi, Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design... , Alex Michon Alex Michon Alex Michon is a British artist, based in London, and runs the Transition Gallery in Hackney with Cathy Lomax.-Career:Alex Michon is a graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. She exhibits her work, which is mostly painting and drawing. She also writes for Arty magazine... , Marcus Oakley, Stella Vine Stella Vine Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in... , Yolanda Zappaterra. (performance: Gina Birch Gina Birch Gina Birch is an English musician and film-maker, probably best known as a founding member of The Raincoats.Born in Nottingham where she attended Nottingham High School for Girls, Birch formed The Hangovers and released an album, Slow Dirty Tears, in 1998. In 2002 and 2007 she performed live at... ) |
|||
| 2004 | Jan 8 | Feb 1 | Rising Tides | Isabel Young | |||
| 2004 | Jan 8 | Feb 1 | Frontin | Fiona Lumbers | |||
| 2004 | Feb 5 | Mar 7 | Search & Destroy | Alex Gene Morrison | |||
| 2004 | Mar 11 | Apr 4 | Projects | William Cruickshank | |||
| 2004 | Apr 8 | May 2 | Something Is Already Happening | Lorin Davies, Michael Wilson, Jacqueline Hallum, Dylan Shipton, Barbara Nemitz, Sara MacKillop, Nichola Williams, Katy Dove, Andy Black, Emily Jo Sargent, Damien Roach (curator: Dan Howard-Birt) | |||
| 2004 | Jun 3 | Jun 27 | Video | Oriana Fox | |||
| 2004 | Jul 1 | Jul 25 | James Jessop and Jasper Joffe | James Jessop James Jessop James Jessop is a British contemporary artist. He trained at The Royal College of Art and Coventry University. He lectures at City and Guilds of London Art School.... , Jasper Joffe Jasper Joffe Jasper Joffe is a British contemporary artist and novelist.-Life and work:Jasper Joffe was born in the United States in 1975 and moved to England when he was eight. He is the brother of artist Chantal Joffe. He studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford... |
|||
| Rosy Wilde in Soho | |||||||
| 2006 | Jul 4 | Jul 29 | Vignettes | Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design... |
|||
| 2006 | Aug 2 | Sep 2 | Force Fed Brown Bread | Michael Crowe | |||
| 2006 | Sep 6 | Sep 30 | LUX | Annabel Dover | |||
| 2006 | Oct 4 | Oct 28 | Give Me Your Blacklisted | Jemima Brown | |||
See also
- Whitecross Street Market
- ArtyArtyArty is an independent British art fanzine started by the artist Cathy Lomax in 2001. Arty is for art fans written by artists themselves and published by Transition Gallery's editions department, the artist-run space in East London.-History:...
magazine
External links
- Rosy Wilde Gallery (historic site)
- Rosy Wilde at MySpace.com (historic site)
- Oriana Fox's exhibition at Rosy Wilde
- Stella Vine official website