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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


Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate Britain, London
In my mind, a portrait is the depiction of an actual person, someone who has lived. Their portrait was made so their story could be told...

Beyond the Canvas
Jan 21, 20231 min read
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0 comments


Remembering David Wojnarowicz, artist and activist (1954–1992)
"One of the strongest feelings I have about death is that it's a time when the energy we carry is dispersed and becomes a part of...

Beyond the Canvas
Jul 22, 20221 min read
15 views
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Domenichino's Sibilla Cumana at Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
Being inside an empty museum at night might well be the ultimate art lover's fantasy. Apart from not having to share the space with herds...

Beyond the Canvas
Jul 15, 20222 min read
32 views
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Gates of Turan, Firouz FarmanFarmaian at the Venice Biennale
Sometimes the Venice Biennale takes you places you'd never dream of going to. A decision to escape the mad crowds of San Marco and take...

Beyond the Canvas
Jun 12, 20221 min read
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A legal killing spree
"When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it really doesn’t have any effect." — Andy Warhol Warhol was an avid collector of...

Beyond the Canvas
Jan 16, 20212 min read
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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
14 views
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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
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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
43 views
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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
30 views
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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
19 views
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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
596 views
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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
27 views
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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...

Beyond the Canvas
Sep 2, 20201 min read
18 views
1 comment


Lorna Simpson's fantastical hairscapes
"Black women’s heads of hair are galaxies unto themselves, solar systems, moonscapes, volcanic interiors. The hair she paints has a mind...

Beyond the Canvas
Aug 29, 20202 min read
35 views
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Titus Kaphar's Shifting the Gaze, 2017
Painting is a visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful, is important, is coded. But sometimes, because of the...

Beyond the Canvas
Aug 27, 20202 min read
162 views
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Amy Sherald's portrait of Breonna Taylor
It's been 176 days since Breonna Taylor was killed. Breonna was 26-year-old, she worked as an emergency room technician and was on the...

Beyond the Canvas
Aug 24, 20201 min read
20 views
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Carrie Mae Weems' The Kitchen Table Series (1990)
"I think that most work that’s made by black artists is considered to be about blackness. [Laughs.] Unlike work that’s made by white...

Beyond the Canvas
Aug 23, 20202 min read
236 views
0 comments


A heathen's pilgrimage to the National Gallery
Today I'm celebrating my first trip into central London after 5 months of mostly staying at home. The Titian: Love, Desire, Death...

Beyond the Canvas
Aug 1, 20202 min read
22 views
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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...

Beyond the Canvas
Jul 27, 20202 min read
49 views
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Gordon Parks' chronicles of everyday segregation
"I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had...

Beyond the Canvas
Jul 25, 20202 min read
19 views
0 comments
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