Last night, omnipresent musician and anthropomorphic meme Drake made his art world debut—kind of—at an ostentatious press preview of his curatorial collaboration with Sotheby's private exhibition space S2.Despite the rapper once telling a reporter, "I think the whole rap–art world thing is getting kind of corny," Drake has teamed up with arguably the world's most corny auction house (as well as Beats by Dre) to createI Like It Like This, a collection of secondary market works by black American artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave, Kara Walker, and Kehinde Wiley. Drake also provided "musical curation" for the art, as the various works include listening stations that play songs meant to complement them.
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On its website Sotheby's explained the goal of this project:
The auction house attributed its interest in Drake to his placeholder as one of today's "foremost cultural tastemakers." Others are more skeptical of this being a notable exhibition or true curatorial effort from the musician.M.H. Miller of ARTNEWS wrote a particularly flippant review of the show, summing it up in a single (albeit long) sentence. Meanwhile, New York described the Drake-Sotheby's alliance as having "a slightly rocky start."But, hey, whatever. We had fun. Plus Drizzy's hair looked great. See some photos of the rapper entering the art game (and Illuminati) below. The work is on view through June 12.Follow Zach on Twitter and Bobby on Tumblr.Today musicians rap about painters and commission artists to design their album covers; in the same vein artists look to music as inspiration for their paintings. Influences flow in both directions to create a fertile creative environment, producing some of the most resonant and profound artistic output in American history.
