5 minute read
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
(Kanye West) – George Condo
Elias Daryani Internal runner-up of National ARTiculation competition
After Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMA awards, the public were outraged and it was seen as career suicide for West. Mentally struggling, he went on a self-imposed exile to Oahu, Hawaii, in what seemed to be his decline. However, he had other plans in mind and instead dedicated his time in Hawaii to creating his magnum opus – ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’. In West’s mind, this album was make or break and everything had to go into it: all insecurities, all emotions, all bravado. We can link this idea of having no filter to the design of the album cover. George Condo is an American artist Twisted Fantasy’ perfectly. Before the late 1930s, record covers had no visual appeal – they only included the name of the record company. Nevertheless, by the 1970s, album covers began to use concept art and symbolism to exhibit greater emotion, in the hopes of generating a more profound attachment to the album. An early example of this is Led Zeppelin’s 1973 album ‘Houses Of The Holy’, designed by the firm Hipgnosis. The cover was able to mix sex, abstract expression and a vibrant colour palette to garner attention for the album and to represent the band’s music to wondrous and rattling effect. This medley of sex and surrealism is similar to Condo’s main cover art for ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’. The vibrant oil painting of an armless sphinx with wings and a polka-dotted tail straddling West is as fantastical as it is disturbing. One of West and Condo’s major artistic influences is Pablo Picasso, whose “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” is considered momentous because of how it disrupted the contemporary art scene during the early 20th century. It too is an oil painting, which features five female prostitutes in a brothel lying in a bed looking out towards an observer. Picasso forces us to stare at these prostitutes who seem to look deeply disturbed, directly engaging us and making it almost impossible to look away from the naked, entangled women. Similarities can be drawn with ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, as Condo paints both West and the armless woman as looking directly at the viewer whilst they are having sex; disconcerting the onlooker and involving them with the piece and all its elements. Per contra, Condo is less interested in the way we look at a
known for his unique and figurative paintings, often featuring fragmented portraits and belligerent imagery. He blends aesthetics that reflect Pablo Picasso with contemporary American culture, with him claiming: “I describe what I do as psychological cubism”. The idea of aggression and maximalist production mixed with American pop culture, mirrors ‘My Beautiful Dark
painting but more so in the psyche of who he is painting and who is looking at the painting – hence why he calls his work “psychological cubism”. Although, some have questioned why West would go to this extent. What was the reason to have such an outlandish album cover? Well, after the VMA debacle, West wanted to, and arguably needed, to come back with a statement. Thus, he told Condo he wanted the artwork to be provocative, and that he was looking for “something that will be banned”. West achieved this, as the cover art was banned in Walmart, and Apple Music pixelated the image. Albeit, this was much to West and Condo’s disgust, with the latter saying in an interview with New York Magazine: “The superimposition of people’s perceptions on a cartoon is shocking… What’s happening in their minds should be banned. Not the painting.” As I have listened to the album frequently throughout the years, the potential symbolism of the art became clearer to me. The beer in West’s hand, I associated as an escape from celebrity. The screwed up face, I linked to the challenges of fame. The fact West and the phoenix looked so menacing while having sex illustrated that despite committing an act of love, they seem to be disconnected. ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ evokes emotions of both passion and perturbation. From it I gain a real sense of dichotomy between ego versus self-esteem. Making me question what insecurities I may be hiding from the world and how I might present myself to hide these vulnerabilities. On track three from the album, ‘POWER’, West’s creativity seems to have been left exposed due to recent events. He raps: “My childlike creativity, purity, and honesty Is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts Reality is catching up with me Taking my inner child, I’m fighting for custody”. West is having an internal conflict over whether he should compromise his creativity to fit in with reality, or allow his artistic expression to roam free. Picasso seems to have gone through this very struggle when he said: “Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up”. Linking this all back to the album’s artwork, we can see how the cover presents adult images such as sex and drinking but does so in
a cartoonish manner. Condo’s previous artworks seem to reflect Picasso’s aesthetic, and so we are led to believe that this childlike imagery juxtaposed with reality was done purposefully. We can contrast ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ to David Bowie’s cover art for his 1983 single ‘Without you’. The cover art is designed by American artist Keith Haring, who was known for his simplistic and recognisable art, very different to Condo’s artistic style. At the time of the song’s release, the two stick-men like figures were suggestive of a homosexual couple, which was still seen as taboo to many. Therefore, we can link ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ to ‘Without You’ in the sense that they were both covers for two artists that were seen as rebels in the music industry. Both covers symbolise America’s views on relationships that, in many people’s opinion, should not be allowed. The only difference is the way they choose to convey this message – Condo decided to use maximalist art that could make the spectator feel offended from first look, and Haring chose to be more minimalistic in his approach, forcing the viewer to look deeper into the artwork and question who the two stick-men are meant to embody. Overall, with ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, West and Condo are attempting to preach the message that fame takes serious sacrifices. Ultimately, this is the life Kanye West desired and while it is unquestionably beautiful, it is just as dark and twisted.
