The Desire Path Helen Beard

With an introduction by Matt Carey - Williams.

Visually exciting — bright, dynamic and voyeuristic — the work of British artist Helen Beard wields colour, texture and abstraction as tools to take back ownership of sexual imagery from the predominantly male gaze. Beard’s work explores themes relating to gender, sexual psychology and eroticism, forever unapologetic in her depictions of female desire

Situated between abstraction and representation, her figures are reduced to concisely defined fields of vibrant colour. Working from found images, Beard’s eye for cinematic compositions featuring close-ups and interesting angles reveal her past experience as an assistant art director in the film industry.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Beard’s oil paintings are the brushstrokes left visible in the otherwise dense surfaces of paint. Transitioning to oil from acrylic paint in 2008, Beard started to experiment with the texture of her paintings, creating an entirely different feeling on the surface of the canvas. As Beard explains in an interview in 2018: “[the brushstrokes] are almost like the touch on skin, like fingerprints”. Against the vigour and excitement of the artist’s choice of subject matter and palette, these strokes return a touch of tenderness to the abstract scenes, creating a fascinating tension that celebrates humankind’s instinctual fascination with sex, as well as its life-affirming nature.

Linen-bound hardback

Published by Reflex Editions