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Discussion: "Where's the art in 'ARTPOP'?"
ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 8/18/2013
Posts: 4,821
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"Where's the art in 'ARTPOP'?"

Lady Gaga herself has described ARTPOP as a "reverse Warholian expedition," meaning that her hope was to, through the album and its associated era, imagery, and videos, among other things, bring the art world into the realm of pop culture, which is just the opposite of what Warhol and the Pop Art movement sought to do. Since the album's release a year ago, however, many people - from professional critics to everyday listeners - have asked "Is there even any art in ARTPOP?" Also, for those that do recognize the art in the album, I've seen quite a few people complain that the album is too POP and not enough ART. I think the issue here is that, as a general statement for the average person in today's world, we're so used to seeing POP, that it's easily understood, recognized, and digested, whereas ART, as a concept, is a little foreign to many people, even if the actual product really isn't all too alien. Because of this, I feel that it is necessary to actually expand upon and elaborate on all of the ART in ARTPOP. I'm sure there will be plenty of things I'm missing, but I will most definitely be updating this post as I discover new things and as new ideas are brought up to me. I will try my best to provide sources for factual information where I can.
- The album's cover (seen above) features a sculpture done by renowned artist Jeff Koons, along with his famed gazing ball. Additionally, the typography was hand collaged by Koons himself. The classic works The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli and Apollo and Daphne by Gian Lorenzo Bernini are also featured in the background of the cover, in alternating triangular slivers. (Source #1) (Source #2)
- Gaga worked with avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson on a number of pieces, collectively titled "Portraits of Lady Gaga," which included Wilson and Gaga's video interpretations of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière, Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Marat, and Andrea Solari’s The Head of Saint John the Baptist, along with original content crafted by the two. The piece debuted at the Louvre in France. Wilson was also the designer of the stage used during Gaga's 2013 VMA's performance. (Source #1) (Source #2)
- Gaga worked with performance artist Marina Abramović, practicing the Abramović Method, which is described as "'a series of exercises designed to heighten participants' awareness of their physical and mental experience in the present moment.'" It has been said that Gaga collaborated with Abramović to better herself as a performance artist, especially after breaking her hip earlier in the year. (Source)
- Dutch photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin were enlisted to work with Gaga on a short film, entitled "An ARTPOP Film Starring LADY GAGA," as well as photograph several photoshoots throughout the era. They were also recruited to direct the video for the albums lead single, "Applause." (Source #1) (Source #2)
- On November 10, 2013, Gaga held an album release party, entitled "artRAVE," wherein was featured even more collaborations between her, Koons, Abramović, Wilson, Inez and Vinoodh, and her own creative team, the Haus of Gaga. Present at the event was the actual sculpture that Koons created for the album cover, along with several other sculptures by him, several creations by the Haus, and a variety of photos shot by Inez and Vinoodh, among other things. (Source)
- During her SXSW performance on March 13, 2014, Gaga invited performance artist Millie Brown to join her on stage for her performance of "Swine." During the song, Gaga and Brown showcased what would become a controversial performance art piece, as Brown ingested and then vomited onto Gaga a paint-soymilk mixture, which is viewed by many fans as a sort of physical manifestation of the rage in the song. (Source #1) (Source #2)
- Both music videos that were released from the era - Applasue and G.U.Y. - An ARTPOP Film - have a plethora of art, fashion, music, and film references, among others, in them. BuzzFeed staff member Aylin Zafar was kind enough to compile two lists of many of these references, so as to not drag this post on more than it needs to, I'll provide a link to her pages. Click here to see her list of references in Applause, and here for her list from G.U.Y. - An ARTPOP film.
- On numerous occasions during the albums promotional campaign, most notably at the 2013 VMA's, Gaga dressed as her interpretation of the character of Venus in Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. (Source) Indeed, you can see a variety of examples of her take on Venus by clicking here.
- During numerous parts of the era, Gaga wore outfits that were obvious homages to various artworks and/or a number of artists themselves. (Click here to see a GIF set showcasing a few examples of this.)
- All the cover images for the albums three singles - Applause, Do What U Want, and G.U.Y. - and for the second promotional single - Dope - are bordered in a way that makes them appear as though they are framed, as a piece of art would be.
- The three cover arts released for Venus were meant to be a sort of triptych for the song. (Source)
- Through the ARTPOP app, users are encouraged, through ArtHaus, to foster their creativity through the creation of graphic art.
- Although this idea never materialized, Gaga had originally planned to shoot a music video for every song on the album, which would have undoubtedly showcased more visual art from the album. An additional plan that failed to come to fruition is the portion of the ARTPOP app called "Trakstar" where users would be allowed to become creative with the stems of various songs. (Stems are the different components of music that make up a song, such as the drums, various lines of synthesizers, guitar, piano, and more.)
But of course, how can we forget the centerpiece of this endeavor - the music? It should be noted that the music itself is a form of art, a statement which I feel is all-encompassing and obvious enough to merit a lack of elaboration. However, I will expand a bit on what I think are noteworthy artistic points to several of the songs on the album. (Note: unless otherwise noted, the interpretations provided are my own, and thus may differ from those of another. This is not a bad thing, and is in fact part of the theme of ARTPOP - that it can "mean anything," just as is ultimately the case with any piece of art.)
- "Venus": The song is directly inspired by and about Boticelli's painting The Birth of Venus. There are so many references in this song, from those related to the Renaissance era, to those from mythology, to those from science, and beyond. So as to not lengthen this post even further, I encourage whoever may be reading this to click here to read an analysis I made regarding the song about a year or so ago. (It's a little messy, because I had relatively little knowledge on what I was discussing at the time, but I still think I brought up some good points. There really is a lot to this song.) I will, however, add a bit to what I said there. Gaga may be experiencing a rebirth of sorts through the song, after all the problems she experienced through the year, from breaking her hip, to having to cancel her biggest tour, to internal management issues, and beyond, similar to how Venus is birthed in both Botticelli's painting and mythology. I'd also like to contradict a point I made in the last bit of that page in the link. I had originally said that Gaga put herself on a pedestal by becoming Venus to try to make herself seem more beautiful than others. After closer inspection - and after the idea was implanted in my head by another individual - I have come to the conclusion that a more likely theory is that Gaga is trying to comment on the concept of ideal beauty, something that Venus has symbolized throughout the ages. Perhaps she is trying to urge the listener or onlooker to question what truly is the standard of beauty, or why a standard is even necessary or in place. (This idea is also reinforced by her past works advising fans to love themselves, no matter how conventionally beautiful they may or may not be.)
- "ARTPOP": This one should be very obvious. There are far too many lines for me to quote and explain at the moment, as I'm trying to finish this up by the end of today so that I may post it on the album's first birthday, but just know this: ARTPOP (the song) addresses many of the major points of ARTPOP (the album), such as the combining of ART and POP, the necessity of creative freedom, the idea that the artist is more than just a product, and more. I will definitely be editing this to be more in depth in time.
- "Swine": A song Gaga herself has described as being about rape, "Swine" is arguably the heaviest song on the album. However, the rage of the song is most obvious and moving during live performances of the song. Nevertheless, Gaga didn't wasted the opportunity to include lyrics about the freeing experience of artistic expression in the song, with lines such as "paint your face and/paint his face and/paint your face and/paint her face and/ paint your face and/be a swine just/for the weekend!" In saying this, she tells the listener to forget their problems, if only for "the weekend." The nature of the painting she describes can be taken two different ways. First, it could mean that the listener is advised to physically paint onto his, her, or their own face, and go out to party for the weekend to help forget any problems they may have. (Perhaps this was a reference to the Applause cover art as well.) Or - and this is my preferred interpretation - it could be Gaga urging the listener to go out and actually paint his, her, or their own face onto a physical medium, such as a canvas, to let out their rage and/or pain through art. This second theory is also reinforced by the fact that Gaga often preached throughout the ARTPOP era of the emotional benefits and freeing experience of putting one's pain into his or her art.
- "Applause": As implied by the song's cover art - which is (arguably) directly inspired by Franco Ferraris' '85 painting, Pierrot - "Applause" deals with the struggle of Pierrot - the struggle of trying to attain that life giving thing, the applause of a happy audience. Lyrically, the song references The Gong Show, a television show from the 70's and 80's, with lines such as "I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong," and "To crash the critic saying, 'Is it right or is it wrong?'" (From IMBd: "Amateurs compete in a talent contest judged by a trio of celebrities. If the act is so bad that the judges can't bear to watch any more of it, they have the power to stop the act by pounding a large gong hanging on the wall behind them." Thus, Gaga is also playing the part of a contestant on the show, fearful that the "critic" of the show will "bang the gong," and asks herself the question, "will they think it's right or wrong?") Artist and collaborator Jeff Koons also gets a call out in the line "One second I'm a Koons, then suddenly the Koons is me," which refers to her modeling for Koons for one of the photoshoots of the album, only to have one of her poses from the shoot turned into a sculpture by him. Lastly, the line "pop culture was in art, now art's in pop culture in me," refers to her big dream with ARTPOP. As I stated during the intro of this post, during the Pop Art movement, Warhol, among other people, brought pop culture into the art world. With ARTPOP, Gaga wanted to do exactly the opposite, her self-pronounced "reverse Warholian expedition" - to bring the art world into pop culture.
I do hope that whoever may be reading this now has a better understanding of the ART in ARTPOP. I feel that I have covered enough examples to provide at least a partially convincing argument, but even this sampling is not large enough, as there are many more examples I could, should, and hope to add to this post as time moves on.
Also, if you'd like, you can like or reblog this on Tumblr so others may see it.
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Member Since: 3/1/2014
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Member Since: 6/25/2012
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
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Member Since: 8/31/2013
Posts: 4,266
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on the three albums before it
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Member Since: 2/11/2012
Posts: 6,737
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Do ya Gaga stans consider this album a step backwards for her? Or a step further? Since she is known for being innovative.
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Member Since: 3/1/2014
Posts: 13,632
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Nowhere.

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Member Since: 4/4/2014
Posts: 2,156
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On the first three letters
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Member Since: 12/16/2008
Posts: 59,380
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Member Since: 1/2/2011
Posts: 2,637
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Quote:
Originally posted by the1975katycat
On the first three letters
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Member Since: 10/22/2011
Posts: 2,549
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I read the first half & thought "that's all fine and dandy - but has nothing to do with the actual music".
Then I got to the analysis of the actual music bit - & it was weak and unconvincing.
All the eccentric costumes & wacky marketing campaigns of this album in fact distracted listeners from the music - which in essence, lacked any type of boundary-pushing, brave, experimental or thoughtful artistry. It was her listing a bunch of things she considered "art" over dated & inconsistent production.
Sonically speaking - The "art" on Artpop was quite limited. Which is fine, as it is a pop-record - But where she failed, was trying to push it as some ground-breaking musical expedition.
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Member Since: 4/28/2012
Posts: 37,654
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Exclusively on The Artrave Tour

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Member Since: 5/3/2012
Posts: 42,099
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Adam Levine asked this same question but we never got a solid response from Gaga.
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Member Since: 6/10/2012
Posts: 2,198
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I'm sorry to say I can't find art anywhere in pretentious. Just my opinion.
However, as I do recognize the work people put into things, I do applaud you taking the time to write all that up. I didn't read it, but I still applaud you.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 8,244
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On her outfits, performances and collaborations, obviously.
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Member Since: 2/2/2014
Posts: 7,449
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Where's the dark in the Prism era?
So many questions so little answers
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 3,003
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Quote:
Originally posted by FOCK
I read the first half & thought "that's all fine and dandy - but has nothing to do with the actual music".
Then I got to the analysis of the actual music bit - & it was weak and unconvincing.
All the eccentric costumes & wacky marketing campaigns of this album in fact distracted listeners from the music - which in essence, lacked any type of boundary-pushing, brave, experimental or thoughtful artistry. It was her listing a bunch of things she considered "art" over dated & inconsistent production.
Sonically speaking - The "art" on Artpop was quite limited. Which is fine, as it is a pop-record - But where she failed, was trying to push it as some ground-breaking musical expedition.
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I agree with all of this. She needs to step her game up
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Member Since: 8/19/2013
Posts: 3,003
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Quote:
Originally posted by liberalmusiclover
Adam Levine asked this same question but we never got a solid response from Gaga.
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Please don't bring your trash taste into this
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Member Since: 2/11/2012
Posts: 6,737
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Quote:
Originally posted by itsaphrodisi
Where's the dark in the Prism era?
So many questions so little answers
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Dark Horse
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Member Since: 8/1/2012
Posts: 1,481
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everywhere? are people really that dumb ?
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