Have you ever looked at a portrait and wondered what the subject of it was thinking? Arty Facts takes this premise and runs with it, exploring the imagined perspectives of subjects that you might recognise from some of the world’s most famous artworks.

The performance delves into the thoughts of artistic icons such as Botticelli’s Venus, Michelangelo’s David, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and the ladies of Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon, to name just a few.  

Arty Facts takes a novel approach to examining these masterpieces, shifting the focus away from the famous artists that the audience is already familiar with. Instead, the performers turn their attention to the instantly recognisable, but often more mysterious subjects that take centre stage in this performance. 

While the musings of these famous faces (and bodies) are mostly fictional, the performance is still somewhat educational and informative, with the cast sprinkling in fun pieces of info and lesser-known facts about the paintings throughout the show. Accompanied by a projection of the background of each painting, three dedicated actors cycle through a variety of costumes and whole host of accents in order to give the audience an imagined insight into the opinions of these famous masterpieces’ subjects. The performance questions what these models might have thought of the artists that painted them, and their final finished works (spoiler alert: not all of the characters love how their portraits turned out)! 

While the delivery sometimes fell a little flat, Arty Facts has come up with an interesting and creative concept, working hard to put themselves in the shoes of ordinary people who had no idea how their image would live on in history. With some additional fine tuning, Arty Facts’ intriguing concept could really shine.

Come along to Arty Facts to get a brand-new perspective from the other side of the canvas!