Rachel Owen

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(2016-12-18) (aged 48)
Spouse	Thom Yorke ​ ​ (m. 2003; sep. 2015)​
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".^{[10][failed verification]}

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.^[11][12][13] She and Yorke had a son, Noah, born in 2001, and a daughter, Agnes, born in 2004.^[14] Owen influenced the lyrics of Radiohead songs such as "Optimistic"^[15] and "I Might Be Wrong",^[16] and Yorke's solo song "Atoms for Peace".^[17]

In 2012, Rolling Stone reported that Owen and Yorke were unmarried.^[18] However, The Times later found that they had married in a secret ceremony in Oxfordshire in May 2003.^[19] In August 2015, the couple announced they had separated amicably "after 23 highly creative and happy years".^[20] Several critics believed the separation influenced the lyrics of Radiohead's 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.^[21][22][23]

Death

Owen died of cancer on 18 December 2016 at the age of 48.^[13] She continued to teach Italian into her final months.^[24] Radiohead dedicated the 2017 OKNOTOK reissue of their 1997 album OK Computer to her memory.^[25]

Works

Books

• Rachel Owen: Illustrations for Dante's 'Inferno'. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2021. Edited by David Bowe. ISBN 978-1851245703.

Exhibitions

• 2015: Ballon Rouge Art, Thame, Oxfordshire, England, 7–15 November 2015^[26]

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.