Q&A | Helen Beard Celebrates Female Desire

Imagine if your entire body, right down to your vulva, was rendered in technicolor — every fold, flap, and nub assigned its own vibrant shade. How would it change how you view yourself? How fun would it be to get naked with another color-splashed body and see how your parts compliment and clash? UK artist Helen Beard gives us a chance to imagine this playful idea with her exuberant oil paintings which are typically on canvases so big, she has to use a ladder to reach the upper corners.

We’ve been admiring Beard’s Instagram account for years, where she posts a large collection of her work including some racier pieces we won't include here, but that are truly worth seeking out. So when it was time to pick an artist to help us celebrate the 1-year anniversary of The VAG, she was our top choice. Luckily, she found time between working sessions in her Brighton-based studio to answer a few of our burning questions about sexuality and censorship.

Q. Your art feels like a fearless celebration of how fun and pleasurable sex can be. Was that your intention?

A. Of course, I have always had a very positive experience with sex, I have been very lucky. And I wanted to celebrate that.

Q. At what point in your life did sexuality become a theme in your work and why does it continue to be at the forefront for you?

A. It’s always been a subject I have wanted to make work about because when I was younger it felt wrong to be a woman with desire, and I always wondered why it was so different for men. I even convinced myself I must have a male brain because I was so interested. I think it is important for women to express they have these needs, too, to communicate that it's not wrong to have these feelings.

Q. I read that Damien Hirst saw your art and fell in love with it. How did that happen and how did it feel?

A. My Ex was working for Damien Hirst and he sent him a Snapchat of his Halloween costume. My paintings were in the background and Damien asked what they were and bought one. When he saw it in the flesh, included in a show at Newport Street Gallery, he asked me to make some more and this time bought the entire body of work for his collection. He then did a group, all-female show, True Colours, with Sadie Laska and Boo Saville. It felt incredible. I had always been too shy to show my work before and it looked so powerful and beautiful in a space like Newport Street Gallery.

Q. As a mother, it can be tricky to express ourselves as sexual beings, especially around our children (even adult children). How has that been for you in relation to your own kids?

When my kids were young I painted in a studio nearby to home. I didn’t hide it from them but they rarely saw it. We have always been very open about sex and I wanted them to feel that they could always talk to me about it. Or ask me questions about my work. When they became aware that my work wasn’t just colours and shapes, they were fine with it. They never expressed any difficulty. I think difficulty around sex comes from repression and inability to have discussions around the subject. As teenagers their friends loved the work and said how cool their mom was. I think they were proud of me for being a successful artist and for being true to myself.

Q.  It can be complicated for women to look at images of sex and simply enjoy them. Why is it that the way you use color in your art makes this feel more possible?

A. I think the frisson of a certain colour next to another creates an energy, not unlike sexual energy. There is no logical reason why it works, it just does, like the chemistry between people. I put the colour together very intuitively, trying a few options before finding the ones that truly compliment each other. 

Q. How do you respond to censorship and does it hinder or fuel your work?

A. This time of increased censorship in the USA is really sad. As I said before, the more we can communicate about sex and gender, desire and equality in all its different forms. The more open the discourse, the easier it is to protect people as they explore their identity without harm or shame.

A few years ago I curated a show around the subject of censorship on social media. We had a lot of female artists exploring their own desire, bodies and personal freedoms. It was liberating to be involved in such project and give women a voice when they often fell foul of cancel culture.

Q. Do you have any words of encouragement for women who are struggling to see their sexual needs as worth tending to?

A. All beings have basic needs and I see no shame including sexual pleasure as one of those. For so long men have had the monopoly on this. And we need to take back ownership and see our own desires as just as important.

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Meet Helen in an interview from her Newport Street Gallery show below, and learn more about her art on her website.