To keep with the theme of what is actually contemporary within the tenuous realm of art, I bring to you this week news on none other than our (sometimes least) favorite rap mogul, Kanye West.
Imma let myself finish though, don’t worry, but before I get into the newsworthy, I feel the need to give some background:
New Hampshire native George Condo has had paintings and sculptures featured in a slew of museums all over the world (NYC’s MoMA and Guggenheim, London’s Tate Modern, Paris’s Ministere de la Culture, and Barcelona’s Museu d’Art Contemporani to name a few). Condo tends to employ a cubist-inspired style in his works (think Picasso), and also seems to often opt for a surreal-esque subject matter (Particle pick up).
What’s the connection between Condo and Kanye, you ask? Early last week, Kanye tweeted that the cover of his new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, due out at the end of November, had been banned in the USA.
George Condo is the man behind the cover art.
Condo also produced artwork for the album’s first single, “Power” (check it here and here) and second single “Runaway” (check it here), a 35 minute video for which (supposedly inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse) which premiered last Saturday to mixed reviews.
MBDTF apparently follows the story concept of Kanye (but named Griffin) falling in love with a winged woman (who he has repeatedly referred to as a phoenix, though there doesn’t seem to be much phoenix-like about her apart from the wings), and is exemplified not only in Condo’s cover art, but also in Italian-born artist and filmmaker Marco Brambilla’s “Power” video. The video – or, I should say, “moving picture,” as Kanye calls it – features the rapper standing behind a phoenix woman, with assorted scantily-clad people doing surrealish things around him.
The exact details of the cover’s banning are still pretty vague, but I can – for once – appreciate Kanye’s attempt at invention, as well as his inclusion and exposure of the “art world” in his music.
“They don’t want me chilling on the couch with my phoenix!” Kanye tweeted last Sunday, with a link to the cover (pictured above). Is a painting of a butt and nipple really too much for America to handle?
— Ariel Goldberg
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