When Im Looking at You Its Like Im Looking at Art Song
"As music is the verse of sound, then is painting the poetry of sight," James McNeil Whistler one time wrote. He understood that when the fine art earth joins forces with the music industry, everyone is a winner. Have Lady Gaga and Jeff Koons on her hit album ArtPop, for instance; the duo seemed similar a perfect friction match, merging the Popular Art master with the pop music maven.
Related: Who Said This—Lady Gaga or Jeff Koons?
Encounter below which are the meridian ten tracks every fine art lover should know (in no item order).
A nonetheless from Jay Z's video "Picasso Baby." Courtesy of YouTube.
1. Jay Z, "Picasso Baby" (2013)
Marina Abramović was just one of the many fine art world figures to team up with hip hop mogul Jay Z for the music video for his 2013 unmarried, which makes references to Fine art Basel, the Tate Mod, Jeff Koons, and Leonardo da Vinci, among artists and art institutions. Jay Z also compares his ain fame to that of prolific painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso, rapping "What's it gonna take/For me to go/For y'all to meet/I'g the modern twenty-four hour period Pablo/Picasso baby."
Filmed at Chelsea'due south Pace Gallery, the video's popular culture/performance art mash-upward attracted a crowd of celebrities and fans alike.Jay Z performed the song on loop throughout the half-dozen-hour-long shoot, inspired by Abramović's 2010 operation, The Artist is Present, where she sat silently at New York'due south Museum of Modernistic Art for 736 hours.
A controversy arose two years later, however, when Abramović claimed thatJay Z had never fabricated expert on his promise to donate to her institution in Hudson, New York, in exchange for her participation. However, it turned out that Jay Z keeps his receipts: The hip-hop mogul dedicated himself against Abramović's accusation with proof of his donation. For her part, the performance artist blamed her staff for the misunderstanding.
Courtesy of YouTube.
2. The Cosmos, "Painter Human" (1966)
British band the Cosmos released this vocal, which chronicles the struggles of a man looking to make information technology as a painter, in 1966, a year prior to their album,We Are Paintermen. Boney M. later did a magical cover of the song in 1978.
The tune is most an aspiring artist, who "went to higher, studied arts," but laments "studied hard, gettin' my degree/But no ane seemed to observe me." Forced into advert and cartoons to make a living, the vocalizer can't assist merely conclude that "classic art has had it's day." Equally depressing as the words are, information technology's best not to overthink the lyrics of this catchy tune and just enjoy it.
Peter Zimmerman. Unforgettable (2010). Courtesy of Flickr via Artistic Commons.
3. Nat Rex Cole, "Mona Lisa" (1950)
Nat King Cole ruled the charts in the 1950s and early '60s with a warm voice and a souvenir for the ho-hum songs, and this is no exception. In a pianoforte ballad nearly the beauty of a woman and the dazzler of dear, Cole describes his appreciation of Leonardo da Vinci'sMona Lisa, known for her mysterious smile. "Do you smiling to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?/Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?" Cole asks.
Lady Gaga's ARTPOP with cover art (partially) past Jeff Koons.
four. Lady Gaga, "Applause" (2013)
The Jeff Koons-designed cover was all the rage when Lady Gaga's album ArtPop came out in 2013. (Information technology likewise secured a spot on artnet News's Top 12 Album Covers Designed by Famous Artists in 2014.) The pb unmarried, "Applause," a pumped-up and lively anthem, also features some fine art-inspired lyrics, with Gaga singing "One 2nd I'm a kunst/Then of a sudden the kunst is me/Pop civilization was in art/Now, art's in pop culture in me."
Badgreeb Records. David Bowie, Hunky Dory (2011). Courtesy of Flickr via Artistic Commons.
v. David Bowie, "Andy Warhol" (1971)
This classic tribute to Andy Warhol immortalizes the creative person's career every bit a dedicated leader in the Popular Fine art movement. David Bowie's enigmatic lyrics prove to exist as mesmerizing as the song itself, such as the chorus "Andy Warhol, silver screen/Tin can't tell them apart at all." The words reference Wahol's wide range of creative achievement, from music to art to movie, and capture simply what an important figure he was for the evolution of art.
In 1996, Bowie would proceed to play Warhol, donning the artist's signature silver wig, for Julian Schnabel's Jean-Michel Basquiat bio pic,Basquiat.
Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Nighttime (2014). Courtesy of Flickr via Creative Commons.
half-dozen. Don McLean, "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)," 1971
Written as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh's tragic life and the artist's most famous painting,The Starry Night, the song as well includes a description of a few other paintings by the Dutch post-Impressionist, such equally his self-portrait without bristles. "Frame-less heads on nameless walls/With optics that watch the earth and can't forget" sings Don McLean, best-known for the hit tune "American Pie," in one haunting passage. The singer goes on to romanticize van Gogh's tragic death, singing"You lot took your life, as lovers often practise/But I could've told you Vincent/This globe was never meant for/One as cute as yous."
seven. Kanye West, "Famous" (2016)
Ah, Kanye. The man is clearly no stranger to controversy. His latest stunt, a music video for his new song "Famous," was inspired past American artist Vincent Desiderio's Sleep, a 24-human foot-long painting of nudes on a bed with tangled sheets. For his version, West replaced the anonymous nudes with digitally-rendered bodies of famous celebrities, including singer Taylor Swift.
Lena Dunham railed against the video, saying that its depiction of women make them experience dangerous. Swift also protested the song, which includes an insulting line about her, only West'southward wife, Kim Kardashian, subsequently leaked a telephone telephone call in which Swift appears to give the song her approval. (West is used to being all anyone can talk about, and so he probably didn't mind the uproar.)
Pablo Picasso at his studio in front of "La Cuisine" 1948. Courtesy of Flickr via Creative Eatables.
8. Paul McCartney and Wings, "Picasso's Concluding Words (Potable To Me)," 1973
Paul McCartney can do no wrong with this serenade to pioneering Cubist master and all-around art groovy Pablo Picasso. At his death in 1973, Picasso'southward last words were said to exist "drink to me, beverage to my heath, yous know I tin can't drink anymore," which class the chorus of the song.
Frida Kahlo. Viva la Vida, Watermelons (1954). Courtesy of Frida Kahlo Museum.
9. Coldplay, "Viva La Vida" (2008)
Coldplay front-man Chris Martin was inspired to write the song by a Frida Kahlo painting titledViva la Vida. The singer-songwriter was inspired by Kahlo's perseverance in the face of polio, spinal injury, and chronic pain, he told Rolling Stone, saying, "She went through a lot of pain, of course, and then she started a large painting in her business firm that said Viva la Vida; I just loved the disrespect of it."
Frida Kahlo. What I Saw in the Water (1938). Courtesy of Elise Bernatchez via Flickr Creative Commons.
10. Florence and the Motorcar, "What the Water Gave Me" (2011)
Another Frida Kahlo painting inspired this song off the 2011 Florence and the Car album Ceremonials.
"At lot of the fourth dimension when I'm writing, things will just announced. I was writing the song and this book on symbolism was lying around, and information technology had the painting in it. It'south nice to mix the ordinary with extraordinary," lead singer Florence Welsh, who penned the tune, told NME. The painting'south agonizing scene of people drowning in a bathtub are reflected in the song'southward lyrics, which reference children being swept out to sea.
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Source: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/music-for-art-lovers-548078
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