Beyond the Canvas Blog

Mar 23
2 min

Laura Aguilar's courageous rebellion

“My photography has always provided me with an opportunity to open myself up and see the world around me. And most of all, photography makes me look within.” - Laura Aguilar In her series of self-portraits set in the rocky desert landscape of the American Southwest, Laura Aguilar used her body like a sculpture, she is a human monolith. Her large body is draped on a big boulder whose shape echoes hers. It's hard to say whether she felt at one with nature or whether she was try

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Beyond the Canvas

Nov 14, 2020
2 min

Art is essential, now more than ever.

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso Dust. How many tonnes of dust are we currently covered in? Painful, heavy dust accumulated from the prolonged anxiety and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. Infuriating, ugly dust thrown at us by corrupt and dangerously incompetent politicians day in, day out. Oh, and then there's the surreal, disquieting dust coming from across the pond (despite the good news that change is finally coming, of cour

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Fourteen days to the US Presidential election.

Beyond the Canvas

Oct 20, 2020
2 min

Fourteen days to the US Presidential election.

“We are at a precipice in this country, and we are either going to move forward or we are not.” - Carrie Mae Weems In 2016, nearly half of the eligible US voters opted to forgo one of their fundamental civil rights and did not vote. This means that over 100 million Americans were so irreconcilably disengaged from politics that they could not be bothered to have their say. Worryingly, a whopping 20% of this 100 million is planning to do the same this year. The reason? They are

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Beyond the Canvas

Sep 20, 2020
1 min

Americans in Venice

Venice is, among many other wonderful things, synonymous with glass. The work of the Murano glassblowers has inspired countless artists to explore the possibilities of this fascinating medium and break the barriers of functionality to land into full-fledged artistic territory. Le Stanze del Vetro and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore present a superb show of 155 pieces and installations that trace the history of the American Studiio Glass throu

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Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, The Met rooftop

Beyond the Canvas

Sep 3, 2020
1 min

Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, The Met rooftop

"The wall is a monument to openness over enclosure, lightness over heaviness, transience over permanence — it’s also fraught with political meanings." - Héctor Zamora Oh the timeliness. Oh the metaphor. Oh the poetry. Oh the delight. Lattice Detour truly has it all. This wall, in fact, may well be the ultimate installation for a social space in 2020 America. A wall in America - the defining symbol of our (extremely messed up) times. A wall on the Met terrace, one of the most

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Dwelling: In This Space We Breathe, Khadija Saye (1992-2017)

Beyond the Canvas

Jul 27, 2020
2 min

Dwelling: In This Space We Breathe, Khadija Saye (1992-2017)

‘The series was created from a personal need for spiritual grounding after experiencing trauma. The search for what gives meaning to our lives and what we hold onto in times of despair and life changing challenges.’ - Khadija Saye To most of you, Grenfell Tower won't ring any bells. To Londoners, its mention immediately evokes a raging blaze, a preventable tragedy, and the tragic loss of 72 innocent lives, the victims of social inequality and injustice. Khadija Saye, 24 years

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Flashback no. 4: Egon Schiele's flowers at Leopold Museum, Vienna (27 January 2017)

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 16, 2020
2 min

Flashback no. 4: Egon Schiele's flowers at Leopold Museum, Vienna (27 January 2017)

The Leopold Museum in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier is one the many gems of the city's outstanding cultural offering, arguably among the richest in Europe. The museum offers a comprehensive overview of Austrian art from the second half of the 19th century and Modernism (incl. works by Klimt and Kokoschka) and is home to the largest Schiele collection in the world. It's a rather tragic story that of Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele. After losing his dad to syphylis when he was o

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Flashback no. 3: Robert Longo at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (19 October 2016)

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 13, 2020
2 min

Flashback no. 3: Robert Longo at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (19 October 2016)

Discovery no. 1: Gorky Park is a name I used to associate with a spy movie from the 80s. Now I know where it is, it took me well over an hour to walk there on a cold, wind-swept autumn day. The park, of which sadly I only saw a fraction, is also the home of Garage, founded in 2008 by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and his former spouse Dasha Zhukova. Discovery no. 2: I had not come across the work of Robert Longo before, it was one of those unexpected and wonderful even

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Flashback no. 2: Jaume Plensa, 56th Venice Biennale (11 October 2015)

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 11, 2020
1 min

Flashback no. 2: Jaume Plensa, 56th Venice Biennale (11 October 2015)

With permanent installations across the globe, Barcelona-born Jaume Plensa is the one of the doyens of large scale artistic projects in public spaces. Plensa uses thousands of letters and the shape of the human body to create sculptural works that convey great intensity combined with a mysterious serenity. With the aid of iron, glass and resin, he balances form and scale to give life to works that are both soothing and compelling. The theme of the heads of young women is a re

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Flashback no. 1: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (5 March 2017)

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 8, 2020
1 min

Flashback no. 1: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (5 March 2017)

There are many reasons to visit the Getty Centre, which is nestled in the hills overlooking West Los Angeles. The first is probably its unique architecture, one of Richard Meier's most visionary and iconic achievements. The second is the oddly serene view that can be enjoyed from the beautifully landscaped gardens. The museum's collection is also quite impressive, and it was it difficult to pick just one work for this post. Then I remembered being struck by this delightful De

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Beyond the Canvas

Apr 7, 2020
1 min

Looking back as we look forward

The reality that my 2020 travel plans (and the inevitable art 'intake' that was supposed to go with them) have all but gone up in smoke has now well and truly hit me in the face. Given a 2nd trip to Moscow was on the cards, the bad news is that there won't be any new rave reviews of Russian socialist realist paintings. The good news is that I can and will 'recycle' my old museum visits so there will be, among others, rave reviews of Russian socialist paintings after all. Ha.

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Spring in art part 8: the day van Gogh comes to Fulham

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 5, 2020
1 min

Spring in art part 8: the day van Gogh comes to Fulham

Today is the most awaited day of my year. The hopeful and feverish monitoring of the evolution of the buds on my beloved pear tree culminates and ends on the day I wake up to find buds have turned into flowers. That day is today. White, fragile, ephemeral, beautiful and moving, trembling in the breeze against the clear blue sky. Today I’m feeling a little bit like Vincent in Arles. I also choose to live this day in contemplation and in awe of nature. This yearly gift is immen

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Spring in art part 7: Steichen does a van Gogh

Beyond the Canvas

Apr 2, 2020
1 min

Spring in art part 7: Steichen does a van Gogh

Luxembourg-born Edward Steichen is one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of the Photo-Secession, a movement that promoted the idea that photography was not just about accurately reproducing the world, but also about creating artistic imagery. Steichen and his peers adopted a more 'painterly' approach to photography using filters and soft focus to express their creativity and manipulate their images. Steichen, who had trained

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Spring in art part 6: It's always spring in Mexico

Beyond the Canvas

Mar 31, 2020
1 min

Spring in art part 6: It's always spring in Mexico

I now realise this series has very much gone from 'spring in art' to 'flowers in art'. And granted, chances are Mexico is blessed with beautiful flowers all year round. But the point here is to celebrate the symbolism of flowers (rebirth, hope, beauty, love, you name it) as opposed to their seasonality, so here goes. That of Alfredo Ramos Martinez is a name I suspect won't ring many bells. Together with the more celebrated Rivera, Siqueiros, Orozco and, of course, Kahlo, he w

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Spring in art part 5: van Gogh's Japanese connection

Beyond the Canvas

Mar 29, 2020
2 min

Spring in art part 5: van Gogh's Japanese connection

There is something particularly poignant about this painting. Maybe because van Gogh created this resplendent vision of spring mere months before he decided to take his own life. A gift to his beloved brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo for birth of their son Vincent Willem, the founder of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Almond Blossom is a joyful celebration of the awakening of nature and the arrival of new life. The Dutch artist had moved to Arles in the south of France in

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Spring in art part 4: Magritte's mysterious encounters

Beyond the Canvas

Mar 28, 2020
2 min

Spring in art part 4: Magritte's mysterious encounters

One of the undisputed masters of Surrealism, Belgian René Magritte had a unique artistic perspective on life and nature. In his view "to be surrealist is to banish the notion of déjà vu and seek out the not yet seen." The 'not yet seen' in his paintings comes in the shape of everyday objects that he liked to twist and recontextualise in order to suggest new, dreamlike scenarios. Magritte's imagery is perhaps the most appealing and accessible of the Surrealist movement. His no

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Spring in art part 3: Monet's wonderful floral obsession

Beyond the Canvas

Mar 26, 2020
1 min

Spring in art part 3: Monet's wonderful floral obsession

No celebration of the beauty of nature in Spring can be complete without dedicating one post to Claude Monet. Luckily for us, the Impressionist master's love for the representation of flowers and gardens in bloom knew no bounds. So much so, that he is quoted to have said that flowers were the reason he became a painter in the first place. This is an early Monet, he was only 24 when he produced this stunning picture. It's a lush cascade of lilacs, tulips, peonies, geraniums an

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Spring in art part 2: One lilac does make the spring.

Beyond the Canvas

Mar 25, 2020
1 min

Spring in art part 2: One lilac does make the spring.

Expect to see plenty of Russian art on here for it is one major passion of mine. Places like the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow are where every day more I long to go back and lose myself until those rather stern-looking museum supervisors unceremoniously inform me that it's closing time. All in due course. Until that day comes, let's feast our eyes on this stunning piece by Russian-Soviet symbolist painter Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Although the artist is mostly known for his iconic

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Beyond the Canvas

Mar 24, 2020
2 min

Spring in art part 1: David Hockney

David Hockney is the celebrated doyen of British 60s pop art. The reason I chose this painting to kick off a short series of posts on Spring in art is because I liked the candor of what he said about it: "In this painting I wanted the sensation of very early spring, when the first leaves come out. They begin at the very bottom of the trees, and you don't see very much of the branches. They seemed to float. I loved that idea and that's what this painting is about. This was my

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Beyond the Canvas

Mar 23, 2020
1 min

Good news: Spring is here!

I have this inexplicably difficult relationship with exclamation marks, which I find offensive and mostly unnecessary. But the arrival of Spring has to be my favourite event in the year and, as such, it's okay to shout about it. So yes folks, Spring is here! Except I was so busy being worried and poring over the news that I almost missed it. Amid the global pandemic doom and gloom, 82-year old British artist David Hockney sends us a much-needed message of hope and positivity

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