Week #23 ('20) Art Appreciation

Week #23 ('20) Art Appreciation

Welcome to my weekly Art Appreciation post, where I provide a list of some amazing album covers, single art, and random art that have come out within the past week. I’ll give you the artist/photographer/painter/magician’s name, as well as any social media or websites where you can go and check out more of their work. Click here to go back and see some other Art Appreciation posts.

I’m rolling out a new kind of post here on Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen: Art Appreciation. Initially this was attached to the playlists, but I’ve come to realize how important these artists are in the creative process, and decided that it was time to break this off into it’s own content. Good pieces of art change the perception of music more than I think a lot of people like to admit: it’s usually the first thing you see going into a new project, setting the moods, tone, and aesthetic of the body of work (or single). These artists hold a very important position in the consumption of music, and so they deserve their own shine. Don’t forget to go out and follow these artists on their respective social media spaces; go tell them how great of a job they did here!

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Shrines.jpg

Artist(s): John Roca & Philippe van Wolputte

Shrines, by Armand Hammer

Here we have an old photo taken by John Roca circa 2003. Phillipe van Wolputte is a world-class installation artist who seemingly provides some art direction and additional photograhy for Shrines. Despite just being a photograph, this image chosen here is powerful in that it puts into perspective the power that billy woods and Elucid command in the face of the system. They are tigers of the genre, going for the throat lyrically every time they spit in their insanely cryptic ways. I also find it insanely funny to think about what is going through that cops mind right now; probably the same thing I thought whenever I first listened to an Armand Hammer project: “What in the world am I dealing with here?”

John Roca’s Website/Philippe’s Instagram/Phillipe’s Website

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Run the Jewels 4.jpg

Artist(s): Tim Saccenti for Setta Studios

RTJ4, by Run the Jewels

I love it whenever cover art can be a sort of running evolution through out multiple projects, and one of my favorite examples is with the Run the Jewels series. They are all based off of their signature hand signal, the finger gun and the fist, but each iteration adds a new layer to the idea. The original Run the Jewels and it’s sequel were zombified hands, complete with that 36 inch chain tying them to the streets. They were in the comic book/carton style, like they’d fit right in within a graphic novel. But the covers for RTJ3 and now RTJ4 transcended into the digital age, leaving the 2D drawings for 3D sculptures, and trading the blacks and reds of the originals for more digital purple/blues and golds. RTJ4 is Run the Jewels tapping fully into this new digital age aesthetically, with the hands losing a lot of their details in favor of sleek polygonal design, a reflection of this group now being “uploaded” into your mind as opposed to being passed out and disseminated to the masses.

Tim’s Instagram/Tim’s Twitter/Setta’s Instagram

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Sciptures in the Sky.jpg

Artist(s): D.Ratz

Sciptures In The Sky, by The Musalini & G4 JAG

If you incorporate old paintings in your artwork, I love it off the jump. Here you have the painting The Plague of the Philistines at Ashdod, originally a painting by Pierre Mignard done in the late 1600’s. What’s cool is how the painting is used as something hidden behind this guise of a golden mask, specifically the head of a sarcophagus from Ancient Egypt. The photoshopping here to put the scene behind his mask is excellent, and I love how it gives me this feeling of mystery or a misgiving of what is actually behind the masks that we all wear everyday. Anyone out there can have an outward mask of gold, but take off that thin veneer and you’ll see the rotten core of some people.

D. Ratz’s Instagram

Weekly Fix #23 (‘20)

Weekly Fix #23 (‘20)

Week #23 (‘20) Playlists

Week #23 (‘20) Playlists