Rose Wylie, 91 and still painting, brings her glorious irreverence to Frieze London

When Monocle’s November issue hits newsstands next week, you’ll be able to flip to the back of the magazine to hear the stories – and marvel at the oeuvre – of seven extraordinary painters. The thing that unites those artists? They are all in their eighties and nineties but continue to stage large exhibitions, sell works for major sums and innovate within their craft. 

If you’re at Frieze London this week, you have the opportunity to see the work of one of those artists in person: Rose Wylie’s painting “Lotte” (2025) features at David Zwirner (booth D15). The brightly coloured painting depicting football player Lotte Wubben-Moy is typical of Wylie’s exuberant style and well worth a look. 

Read on for Monocle’s profile of the sprightly Wylie and a behind-the-scenes look at her famous (and famously messy) studio in Kent. Stay tuned next week to read the full feature.

When a particularly big globule of paint falls off Rose Wylie’s brush, she’ll simply cover it with a sheet of newspaper to stop it getting on her shoes. “I’m not a precious worker,” she says as we stand in her studio. A soft layer of newspaper carpets the floor, paintbrushes stick out of cans stacked on chairs and colourful splatters obscure the skirting board. Wylie’s unruly garden has crept up the side of the house and into this first-floor room – a jasmine plant pushes through a window in one corner. “Mostly you’re criticised if you don’t tidy up,” she says. “But if you get through a certain threshold, it becomes iconic.”

Wylie’s artistic training went unused for years while she raised her family but, since returning to painting in her forties, she has become a critical and commercial darling of the art world. She is currently working on a painting that features a large, “nonchalant” skeleton. It will appear in her upcoming exhibition at London’s Royal Academy in early 2026, her biggest show to date.

Wylie’s bold canvases often combine text and figures from history, mythology or contemporary pop culture. And while Wylie’s process can be messy, she is exacting about her practice, regularly working late into the night wrestling with a painting. “Often it’s horrible, slimy, trite, pedestrian,” she says. “There are 100 things that can go wrong, particularly with faces, and then, for some odd reason, suddenly it’s alright.”