Six Informative Art Lessons We’ve Received From Kanye West

“Great art comes from great artists”, said Kanye West in his already infamous New York Times interview earlier this week. As a statement out of context, it doesn’t make much sense, but I guess it’s just Kanye being Kanye: he’s special ergo whatever he poops out is special. Kanye also noticed this sentiment in other “great artists” — “Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Nicolas Ghesquière, Anna Wintour, David Stern” — with whom he aligned himself in the interview (NBA commissioner David Stern, an artist? Okay, Kanye.)

Kanye’s penchant for artsy-stuffs isn’t new news, though. The guy took a semester of fine art classes at Chicago’s American Academy Of Art when he was 19, before concentrating on music, and his once nuts Twitter feed used to be full of informed art appreciation. They’ve all since been deleted in preparation for Yeezus, but, seeing as this is the internet and nothing ever dies, we found a whole bunch of them again.

In light of his most recent art recommendation, may we present you with Art Appreciation 101, according to Kanye. Class is in session, y’all.

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1. Inspiration comes in all shapes and light fittings

The inspiration: Le Corbusier (1887 – 1965)

What Kanye said: “This one Corbusier lamp was like, my greatest inspiration. I lived in Paris in this loft space and recorded in my living room, and it just had the worst acoustics possible, but also the songs had to be super simple, because if you turned up some complicated sound and a track with too much bass, it’s not going to work in that space. I would go to museums and just like, the Louvre would have a furniture exhibit, and I visited it like, five times, even privately. And I would go see actual Corbusier homes in real life and just talk about, you know, why did they design it? They did like, the biggest glass panes that had ever been done.”

Why it’s important: Le Corbusier is considered “the father of Modern architecture”, an artist who preached the value of harmony and truth to materials in design. Believing the right architecture could lead us toward a better, cleaner future, his designs were always sparse and minimal and occasionally featured a sink in entrance halls. This pure aesthetic carried over into his furniture design, which was similarly characterised by clean lines and few materials.

What have we learnt? Next time you’re inspired by a mug or a chair, give the Louvre a call and they’ll happily shut down the furniture exhibit to help a student out.

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2. Photographers you should know

The inspirations: Helmut Newton (1920 – 2004) and Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991)

What Kanye said:

Why it’s important: Helmut Newton was a German-Australian fashion photographer famed for highly stylized, erotic scenes of naked women with excessively long legs. Similarly, Guy Bourdin was a French fashion photographer known for surrealistic depictions of naked women, also with excessively long legs.

What have we learnt? Even self-proclaimed creative geniuses like Kanye dream of living in a world full of perpetually naked ladies with excessively long legs.

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3. Where to source your colour palette

The inspiration: Pantone colour chart

What Kanye said: 

Why it’s important: Pantone is a colour matching system for artists, designers and other visually creative folk. Think of it as the ultimate guide to painting by numbers. Blue is 2, or, more specifically, 560B-6

What have we learnt? Those over-priced Pantone mugs and iPhone covers are for posers; get yourself your very own rainbow-coloured chart. Then head to Eastern Europe?

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4. A brief history of art from 1600 to 1970

The inspirations: The Baroque period and the Mod period

What Kanye said:

Why it’s important: Here Kanye is introducing us to the concept of movements within art. Not content with the usual modern/postmodern divide that satisfies your usual art novice, Kanye’s chosen to educate his audience a little deeper. Mods were a prominent subculture in England in the 1950s and ’60s, who liked to wear tailored suits, drive around on chequered scooters, and nurse hangovers from dance parties. Watch Quadrophenia or think ‘Vince, King of the Mods’ from The Mighty Boosh:

In contrast, Baroque was an artistic movement which originated in the 1600s in Rome, and was characterised by excess and bare breasted women.

What have we learnt? A car crash between the two would involve brightly-coloured scooters, questionable haircuts and topless Italian nonnas decked in gold chains. There’s your emergency report, Kanye.

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5. Fake it ’til you make it

The inspirations: Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) and Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)

What Kanye said:

Why it’s important: “I’m on my Van Gogh” could mean anything? Van Gogh is the famous Dutch post-Impressionist, whose prolific career is only overshadowed by the fact he cut his ear off and gave it to a prostitute for safe-keeping. Similarly, Picasso was the Spanish proponent of Cubism, who sometimes commissioned prostitutes to pose nude for him while wearing African masks.

What have we learnt? When in doubt, talk about artists who liked prostitutes?

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6. Inspiration or aspiration?

The inspiration: Marc Newson (1963 – present)

What Kanye said:

Why it’s important: Kanye doesn’t discriminate when it comes to the arts: his love of creative expression extends through classic paintings, modern fashion (the other day’s interview featured a nice shout-out to leather jacket lovin’ Rick Owens), and even industrial design. Marc Newson is a Sydney-born designer famous for his biomorphic designs, chairs that look like tongues of steel, and boats that look like… uh, really expensive boats.

What have we learnt? Although it’s unclear if it was Newson’s groundbreaking design that inspired Kanye “to work harder now” or he simply wanted a new boat to join T-Pain on a harbour cruise, all inspiration — be it by lamp or by boat — is good inspiration. Actually, that’s a very nice lesson, thanks Kanye.

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Hannah Wolff is a writer currently studying Art Theory and interning at Junkee.