Beyond the Canvas
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...
top of page
Beyond the Canvas
- Aug 11, 2021
- 2 min
The meaning of freedom in 2021
It's been a year since the last presidential elections in Belarus. As Alexander Lukashenko was being crowned for the 6th consecutive...
24 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- May 3, 2021
- 2 min
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...
26 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Mar 23, 2021
- 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...
11 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Mar 18, 2021
- 2 min
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...
12 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Feb 5, 2021
- 2 min
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...
10 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Jan 29, 2021
- 2 min
Rewriting the art canon: Kehinde Wiley's triptych for Penn Station, NYC
"I like Venetian painting a lot: looking at Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is one of my favourite things to do. When I went to my first Venice...
22 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Jan 8, 2021
- 2 min
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...
37 views0 comments
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?...
35 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Nov 8, 2020
- 2 min
The delightful reunion of the Griffoni Polyptych - Palazzo Fava, Bologna
As Italy goes into lockdown for the second time, the doors of the museums close again. And so we enter another month (?) of art...
20 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Nov 1, 2020
- 2 min
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...
13 views0 comments
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...
19 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Oct 9, 2020
- 1 min
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...
42 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Oct 4, 2020
- 2 min
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,...
30 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Sep 27, 2020
- 1 min
Annie-Rose Fiddian-Green: Celebrating the lungs of our planet
"During lockdown I moved to north Norfolk where my attention was captivated by the ancient trees that hold the space there so powerfully....
26 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Sep 24, 2020
- 2 min
Tintoretto's scenic inventions
"I never was so utterly crushed to the earth before any human intellect as I was today before Tintoret." - wrote John Ruskin to his...
16 views0 comments
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...
19 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Sep 13, 2020
- 2 min
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...
118 views0 comments
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...
27 views0 comments
Beyond the Canvas
- Sep 2, 2020
- 1 min
Martha Rosler's iconic photomontages
" I want to open a space in people’s minds where they see that they can be active, intellectually and personally, rather than passive...
17 views1 comment
bottom of page