Between the lines

Frequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form

- HANNAH SILVER

It has been a good year for British-born painter George Rouy, who, in 2024, became one of the youngest artists to join Hauser & Wirth, in a representation announced in collaboration with Hannah Barry Gallery.

Originally from Kent, he won a place in 2012 to study painting at Camberwell College of Arts. ‘When I was at art school, painting wasn’t as popular as it is now, but it’s had a resurgence,’ says Rouy. ‘At the time, it felt like it wasn’t the cool thing to do, but I went through the process over the years, trying to search for what figuration in art meant.’

After graduating in 2015, he was inspired by French, Dutch and medieval paintings in his early figurative works for group shows. A bold, more confrontational portrait style soon gave way to a deeper concentration in how the paint was applied to the canvas, with Rouy’s thick, instinctive brush strokes lending a thoughtful and expressive edge to his process. It led him naturally to the more abstract style we see today, with the figures in his paintings captured in a state of distorted awakening, as if from a fever dream, a style that has invited comparisons with Francis Bacon. No longer portraits, or specific figures, they are now memories of them.