Rachel Owen
Welsh artist and academic (1968–2016)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rachel Mary Owen (30 November 1968 – 18 December 2016) was a Welsh photographer, printmaker and lecturer on medieval Italian literature. She was married to the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke; they announced their separation in 2015.
Rachel Owen | |
|---|---|
Owen in 2012 | |
| Born | Rachel Mary Owen 30 November 1968 Cardiff, Wales |
| Died | 18 December 2016 (aged 48) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | rachel-owen.co.uk |
Life and career
Owen was born in Cardiff, Wales.[1] She received a B.A. (Hons) in Italian and fine art (painting), specialising in printmaking, from the University of Exeter.[2] In the 1990s, she lived in Florence with two students and studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence, where she fell in love with Dante's work.[3] In 2001, Owen received a PhD from the University of London, where her research was on the illustrations in manuscripts of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.[4]
Owen was a lecturer in Italian with a focus on medieval Italian literature, where she examined illustration and its reception in Divine Comedy.[5] She taught art history and Dante studies for visiting students at the University of Oxford.[6]
Owen was also a fine-art printmaker[7] and a member of the Oxford Printmakers Co-operative.[8] She mixed photography with printmaking[4] and her work explored ideas of transformation using photographic screenprints.[9] Her artwork was used on the cover of the 1993 Radiohead single "Pop Is Dead".[citation needed]
Personal life
For 23 years, Owen was in a relationship with the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, whom she met while they were students at the University of Exeter.[10][11][12] Their children, Noah and Agnes, were born in 2001 and 2004.[13] Owen influenced the lyrics of Radiohead songs such as "Optimistic" and "I Might Be Wrong", and Yorke's solo song "Atoms for Peace".[14][15][16]
In 2012, Rolling Stone reported that Owen and Yorke were unmarried.[17] However, The Times later found that they had married in a secret ceremony in Oxfordshire in May 2003.[18] In August 2015, the couple announced they had separated amicably "after 23 highly creative and happy years".[19] Several critics believed the separation influenced the lyrics of Radiohead's 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.[20][21][22]
Death
Owen died of cancer on 18 December 2016 at the age of 48.[12] She continued to teach Italian into her final months.[23] Radiohead dedicated the 2017 OKNOTOK reissue of their 1997 album OK Computer to her memory.[24]
Works
Books
- Rachel Owen: Illustrations for Dante's 'Inferno'. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2021. Edited by David Bowe. ISBN 978-1851245703.
Exhibitions
Papers
- Owen, Rachel Mary (2001). Illuminated Manuscripts of Dante's Commedia (1330–1490) in Their Cultural and Artistic Context (PhD). Royal Holloway, University of London. OCLC 556889838.
- Owen, Rachel; Calè, Luisa (2007). "The Image of Dante, Poet and Pilgrim". In Braida, Antonella (ed.). Dante on View: The Reception of Dante in the Visual and Performing Arts. London: Ashgate. pp. 83–94. ISBN 978-0-7546-5896-2. OCLC 83609616.
- Owen, Rachel (2001). Honess, Claire E. (ed.). "Dante's Reception by 14th- and 15th-century Illustrators of the Commedia" (PDF). Reading Medieval Studies. XXVII. Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Reading: 163–225. ISBN 978-0-704-91215-1. ISSN 0950-3129. OCLC 50612171.