On September 15, 2020, Google Arts & Culture released the second installation of their Art Zoom series, a string of YouTube videos in which music artists provide commentary on artwork from all corners of history. The preceding season, released in June 2019, featured the narration of artists like Maggie Rogers, Girl in Red, and Feist. This season was very exciting, featuring many beloved musicians!
The season launches with FKA twigs’ tender analysis of Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy.” Followers of the singer-songwriter’s discography can connect this to the artist’s sophomore studio album, “MAGDALENE”, released in late 2019 to critical acclaim.
Next, K-pop lovers can learn about abstraction and the influence of hue through the voice of TWICE star Chaeyoung, who explores Korean artist Yoo Youngkuk’s “Mountain.”
The third episode focuses on “love, peace, and calm” through the eyes of British pop star Ellie Goulding, who pores over three separate works: Julie Mehretu’s “Mind Breath Drawing”, Yves Klein’s “Large Blue Anthropometry”, and Cy Twombly’s “La caduta di Iperione o Secondo viaggio in Italia.”
The 1975 frontman Matty Healy dives into a classic Piet Mondrian work, “Large Composition A with Black, Red, Gray, Yellow, and Blue,” to provide commentary on the Dutch artist’s reverberating influence on the art world and his expression of utopia through clean lines and primary colors.
Successively, the singular artist Grimes dictates the story of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “The Fall of the Rebel Angels,” a piece which the Canadian artist immediately describes as “…such a nightmare- like, God, it’s so horrific!”
The season is concluded with Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s “20 de Julio” as told by Reggaeton musician J. Balvin. In an expression of Colombian pride, Balvin delves into the details to deliver a history lesson as colorful as the painting itself.
This season was surely a memorable one and I cannot wait for the seasons to come! To learn more about the aforementioned works of art, check out the Art Zoom website.