Ella Walker: The Romance of the Rose | Pilar Corrias
When asked in an interview which artist she’d most like to have lunch with, the London-based painter Ella Walker said… Giotto. “I would love to hear about daily life in the late middle ages,” she added. Walker’s new paintings, on show currently at Pilar Corrias, testify to this preference. With their static flatness and washed-out fresco-like colours, they give a definite early Renaissance vibe, reminding me most of all of Piero della Francesca.
The exhibition is named after another medieval artefact. The Romance of the Rose was a long poem that helped codify the concept of courtly love: a set of rules for how a gentleman should treat his well-born extra-marital conquest. But Walker flips the gender dynamic of medieval art and society; her paintings are exclusively populated by women.
‘The Garden’ (2024)
Each of these large paintings is a cavalcade of characters, generally rowdy looking. Insolent. They wouldn’t ever follow a rule book (or poem). Some are dressed in historical finery, some look modern-ish. Sometimes, they appear as body parts. Each painting is a clip-job, a compilation - while the style of Giotto or Piero is referenced, their mathematical rigour and careful balance is deliberately thrown out of whack, consigned to chaos.
This mishmash extends to the range of techniques Walker uses. Sometimes milky-light acrylics, sometimes chalk, sometimes sharp pencil lines. The show notes suggest there’s some marble dust thrown in there too, for extra Renaissance realness. At the risk of sounding paternalistic, the effect is very pretty. These women aren’t out to please, but they’re pleasing all the same.
Ella Walker: The Romance of the Rose is at Pilar Corrias (London). 11 September - 09 November 2024