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I believe the way we look at visual arts has the potential to change our ideas about history and society, so this is my approach.
To quote the great Toni Morrison: "All good art is political. If it's not political, chances are that it's not that good."
Welcome to my blog (and thanks for reading).
Francesca
Beyond the Canvas
An art blog with opinions


In Memoriam - Wayne Thiebaud: An Ode to Cake
"The whiteness of meringue becomes for me of great poetic preoccupation; it's like snow, like frost ... like ... purity.'' - Wayne...

Beyond the Canvas
Dec 28, 20211 min read


Drunk on art.
Whether it’s the first one or the latest of many, a visit to Florence’s Uffizi is bound to leave you breathless. Such are the quality and...

Beyond the Canvas
Dec 22, 20212 min read


Personal protection: America's love story with firearms
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be...

Beyond the Canvas
Dec 12, 20211 min read


On World AIDS Day
"If I have to change my lifestyle, I don't want to live." - Robert Mapplethorpe In this powerful self-portrait Robert Mapplethorpe looks...

Beyond the Canvas
Dec 1, 20211 min read


Domenico Gnoli at Fondazione Prada, Milan
“I always use simple elements, I don’t want to add or subtract anything. I never even wanted to deform either: I isolate and I represent....

Beyond the Canvas
Nov 13, 20211 min read


A museum for change: the Museum of Homelessness, London
From the Wunderkammers of Renaissance to this day, the Global West has a museum for everything. From sex to death, from vaginas to...

Beyond the Canvas
Oct 16, 20212 min read


Photo print fundraiser in support of women journalists in Afghanistan
Like many, I have been following the recent events unfolding in Afghanistan. I have mostly been feeling sad and powerless while thinking...

Beyond the Canvas
Sep 21, 20211 min read


Women who defend themselves
At long last, my reading drought has come to an end. I am currently re-reading the original version of The Life Before Us written in 1975...

Beyond the Canvas
Sep 4, 20212 min read


A lapsed reader's whinge
"I would like everyone to read, not so they become writers or poets, but so that no one is a slave anymore." - Gianni Rodari I recently...

Beyond the Canvas
May 3, 20212 min read


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...

Beyond the Canvas
Mar 23, 20212 min read


Women as icons and targets
Revered by the public, reviled by the art establishment and eventually sold at auction for almost £1m, the Mona Lisa of kitsch was...

Beyond the Canvas
Mar 18, 20212 min read


Kerry James Marshall IS the canon
“Who needs to NOT think of you as a Black artist to consider you a real artist?” - Kerry James Marshall There are a handful of artists...

Beyond the Canvas
Feb 4, 20212 min read


May Steven's Dark Flag
"Political activity does not interfere with my work, it feeds it. And if I'm interested in racism and fighting racism, then that should...

Beyond the Canvas
Jan 8, 20212 min read


Kim Abeles' Smog Collectors
"The Smog Collectors materialize the reality of the air we breathe. I place cut, stencilled images on transparent or opaque plates or...

Beyond the Canvas
Nov 1, 20202 min read


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...

Beyond the Canvas
Oct 20, 20202 min read


Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk -Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Iconic, but not frozen in time - a garment that continues to evolve and fascinate. That is the premise of this show that traces the...

Beyond the Canvas
Oct 9, 20201 min read


The liberation of Artemisia Gentileschi - National Gallery, London
The overwhelming dominance of Artemisia Gentileschi's personal narrative over her worth as an artist has always bothered me. The rape,...

Beyond the Canvas
Oct 4, 20202 min read


Americans in Venice
Venice is, among many other wonderful things, synonymous with glass. The work of the Murano glassblowers has inspired countless artists...

Beyond the Canvas
Sep 20, 20201 min read


Niccolò dell'Arca's Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1463) - Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna
"This Christ will never be forgotten. Was it made from earth? Was it rotting flesh? I didn’t know what the medium was […] The three Marys...

Beyond the Canvas
Sep 13, 20202 min read


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...

Beyond the Canvas
Sep 3, 20201 min read
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