Pages
- Artist: Romany Eveleigh
- Date: 1976
- Medium: Oil paint, graphite and ink on paper on canvas
- Dimensions: frame: 787 × 668 × 57 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Pages” by Romany Eveleigh. The work dates from 1976 and sits on paper affixed to canvas. She first laid a sheet of paper, coated it in black ink, then rolled on a thick white oil paint. While the paint was still wet, she used a sharp tool to carve hundreds of tiny circles. The black ink peeks through, giving a lattice of “o‑like” marks that echo letters. When you step back, the circles arrange themselves into vertical columns, mimicking the look of a printed page: blocks of text surrounded by empty margins. Eveleigh was inspired by the tabloid sheets plastered on Rome’s walls, and her technique sits between drawing and painting—an abstracted form of printing that feels both physical and performative. Some viewers read the repetitive rows as a nod to domestic chores, the repetitive nature of handwriting, or the way language shapes thought. The piece invites us to think of writing as a bodily act, a visceral gesture that precedes the intellectual act of naming. It’s a quiet meditation on how we see, read, and record the world around us.
See it in person
Pages is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
