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 frontline in the battle against COVID-19. She was struck down by at least 8 shots fired by Louisville Metro Police Department officers executing a so-called no-knock warrant. Amy Sherald (b.1973) is no stranger to telling stories about Black people. For 20 years she has been doing so in her unique and deceptively understated realist style. Her

"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 artists, which is assumed to be universal at its core." - Carrie Mae Weems How many assumptions do we make every time we look at a piece of art? How much of of our own experience do we project? And does the artwork then become more about what we want it or need it to be? Weems' statement is eye-opening and it made me reflect about my way of appr

Ever heard of that theory according to which trees are immortal? No? Then you clearly do not know me very well. Of course trees are not immortal, but I choose to believe that they are. The reason is quite simple: in a world where man keeps devising new and more effective ways to destroy nature, the fact that some trees have survived for thousands of years is a pretty good indicator that they are being rather successful in their quest for immortality. The first work I saw upon

The British obsession with the weather runs deep. Anyone living in Blighty soon falls in line, there are no two ways about it. As for me, all year I moan about the cold weather to anyone who'll listen. Until the dreaded heatwave arrives. It's hot, sticky and humid and we are all bloody miserable. And yes, I'm still moaning. I think I first saw the work of T.S. Harris in Palm Springs, maybe it was in a hotel lobby. I was immediately struck by her large colorful canvases, so br

Today I'm celebrating my first trip into central London after 5 months of mostly staying at home. The Titian: Love, Desire, Death exhibition, now extended to January 2021, is unique and should not be missed in that in reunites for the first time all the six Titian paintings inspired by Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. They are, of course, wonderful and everyone should go see them: book your slot, turn up 15' early and wear a mask - it all worked really seamlessly for me. But I now re

‘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

"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 to have a camera." Gordon Parks (1912-2006) Throughout his over six decade-long career, Parks used his camera to give a voice to those who didn't have one and to address inequities, documenting social injustice and all forms of discrimination. These images are from the Segregation in the South series that he shot in 1956 for a Life Magazine

Barkley L. Hendricks mostly painted portraits, a genre that flourished during the Renaissance becoming the symbol of the sitter's prestige, wealth and power. The representation of power was however never central to Hendricks' work and he also vehemently rejected the label of political artist: "Anything a black person does in terms of the figure is put into a political category. My paintings were about people that were part of my life.” His iconic masterpiece Lawdy Mama intrig

Rivers of ink, including a tiny bit of mine, have been written about Judy Chicago's seminal installation The Dinner Party. But it only recently occurred to me (duh) that for a project whose primary objective was the celebration of women's contribution to history, this is an extraordinarily non-inclusive piece. In fact, of the 39 place settings only one is dedicated to a non-white woman, African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth. The debate is a

The Black Lives Matter movement is having an extraordinary impact on the way brands communicate and behave. Whether it's just 'woke washing' or genuine corporate activism, a growing number of consumers expects brands to become credible advocates of the black community and address long-standing racist and discriminatory stances. Some of the world's biggest names are scrambling to engage in the conversation and put things rights. As a case in point, after 131 years Quaker Oats,

An unusual post this week, but the cause is one that's very close to my heart. I grew up going to the theatre with my mother. Every week for many years we'd walk to Teatro Duse, named after a famous Italian thespian, in my hometown of Bologna to watch the classics: Pirandello, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Goldoni, Brecht, Chekhov, Pinter, Ionesco, Strindberg, Fo, Moliere, they have all contributed to my personal and intellectual education. Theatre-going in London has proven a lot more

The growing momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement and the increased media focus on black culture have brought a multitude of extraordinary black artists to my attention. My latest and hugely exciting discovery is Mickalene Thomas (b.1971). Thomas uses a unique combination of paint, fabrics, rhinestones and glitter to create dazzling mixed-media works that draw on western art history and popular culture. Her vision of female beauty and sexuality challenges and subverts s

Art history is punctuated by a constant juxtaposition of departure from and alignment to tradition. At the same time as some artists are disrupting and trying to innovate, others are formally reconnecting with classical tradition in its broadest sense. Years ago, I studied this phenomenon during the first half of the XX century Europe, the so-called persistence of realism (thank you Christine if you are reading). German Christian Schad (1894-1932) is one of the most prominent

A powerhouse. There is no other way to describe this extraordinary artist whose breakneck rise has seen her work displayed and celebrated at some of the major art venues globally (MOCA and Venice Biennale to name a couple). Nigerian-born, Los Angeles-based Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983) is a child of the African diaspora. We see it in her vibrant work, which is imbued with personal and cultural references. Her large, unframed canvases tell stories about herself and her family, but

Suspended between Piero della Francesca's spatial geometries and De Chirico's metaphysics, Casorati paints a portrait that looks like a secular altarpiece. The beauty of this picture lies in its supremely balanced form and subtly ambiguous subject matter. Silvana is portrayed as an idealised figure caught in a moment of silence and reflection, somewhere between hieratic ecstasy and more mundane tiredness. The sculptural draping of her dress is reminiscent of Michelangelo's ma

Christo left us earlier this week, he died in his New York home at the age of 84. Together with his life and work partner Jeanne-Claude (d. 2009) he created some of the most visually arresting temporary large-scale installations ever seen. Their work was visionary and unique, it truly stretched the boundaries of what we understand as art. Through their signature wrapping and draping technique, they used monuments, landmarks, bridges, islands, buildings, and nature itself as t

Defining what a museum is and does is no mean feat. We know museums do a lot more than just preserve and display valuable objects that the public can enjoy and learn from. Through their collections, museums trace the history of humanity and teach millions of people about who they are. As such, museums aren't just containers of heritage, they are creators of visual, social and cultural identity. I simplify, but it's all much more complicated than this. The roots of many museum

I have been to a couple of auctions in London and I thought there was something uniquely intriguing about the whole process. The theatrical antics of the auctioneer (the Tobias Meyers and Oliver Barkers of this world), the palpable tension in the room when the most anticipated pieces are unveiled and people start bidding for them - it's an exciting ritual. But that's all on hold for the foreseeable future, and online auctions allow auction houses to (more or less) carry on wi

The numbers are in. According to The Art Newspaper's yearly survey, Ai Weiwei is officially the world's most popular artist. His travelling show Root attracted over 1.1 million visitors across four Brazilian cities. Scrolling down the Top 20 list I see some of the usual suspects: Van Gogh is there, of course, as is the crassly commercialised Treasures of Golden Pharaoh show. King Tut's belongings first went on an American tour in 1976 as the result of a political deal broker

This is not just my favourite Caravaggio, this is the ultimate Caravaggio. For me, this is the painting that demonstrates the full extent of his groundbreaking aesthetic revolution. His innovations are stylistical and, perhaps more importantly, iconographical. The realism of the depiction of the Virgin's death is brutal. Mary is shown on her deathbed with her modest dress coming undone, the head lolling to one side, the hair dishevelled. Her throat is swollen, her hand is lim