Beyoncé and Jay-Z in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the video for “Apeshit” (all screenshots by the author via YouTube)
On Saturday, at the end of a concert in London, Beyoncé and Jay-Z surprised the crowd with a new album and a new music video for its lead single, which finds the couple behaving regally around the Louvre. The video for “Apeshit,” directed by Ricky Saiz, marks the Carters’ return to the Parisian museum, where they famously posed in front of the Mona Lisa back in 2014.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the video for “Apeshit”
While Leonardo’s alluring painting is, unsurprisingly, the music video’s star artistic attraction, many major works from the Louvre collection play supporting roles, from other masterpieces of European art including Jacques-Louis David’s monumental “The Coronation of Napoleon” (1807) and Théodore Géricault’s “The Raft of the Medusa” (1818–19), to antiquities including the Venus de Milo (101 BCE), the Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BCE), and the Great Sphinx of Tanis (c. 2600 BCE). Slightly less iconic works also make appearances, most notably “Portrait of a Black Woman” (1800) by Marie-Guillemine Benoist and Rosso Fiorentino’s “Pietà” (1540). Even I.M. Pei’s Louvre Pyramid gets screen time in some of the video’s only exterior shots.
Beyoncé and her dancers in front of Jacques-Louis David’s “Coronation of Napoleon”
Beyoncé and Jay-Z in front of the Winged Victory of Samothrace
The artworks in “Apeshit” often have thematic resonances with the lyrics with which they’re juxtaposed, or visually echo the dance movements performed in front of them, but the video’s real thematic anchor is the Louvre itself. The former royal palace is the perfect setting for the debut music video by pop music’s royal couple as an official duo, “The Carters.” Not only does the video’s setting enshrine them in the glowing aura of European monarchy (further underlined by “The Coronation of Napoleon”), it also works in a contemporary context. After all, who but Beyoncé and Jay-Z could secure exclusive access to the busiest museum in the world to shoot a music video? Here, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are flaunting the Louvre as a kind of supreme status symbol.
Jay-Z contemplates Théodore Géricault’s “The Raft of the Medusa”
Beyoncé and Jay-Z in front of the Great Sphinx of Tanis
But the video also represents something of a missed opportunity. Rather than familiar examples of European painting and Greco-Roman statuary, why not pose more difficult questions about what’s in the coffers of European museums? The shots of Benoist’s “Portrait of a Black Woman” and those in which the couple flanks the Great Sphinx of Tanis begin to hint at such issues, but more could have done in this vein. How much more compelling and challenging would it have been to see shots of Beyoncé and Jay-Z in the Pavillon des Sessions, where the Louvre lumps together artifacts from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania? Or amid the Assyrian reliefs in its Department of Near Eastern Antiquities at a time when the Assyrian artistic heritage continues to be threatened in Iraq and Syria? It’s indisputably striking (and amazing) to see Beyoncé at the center of a line of dancers moving in perfect synchronicity beneath David’s “Coronation of Napoleon,” but it also seems like a pretty obvious pick. Given free reign of the Louvre, you’d hope the Carters would have had more adventurous taste.
The Latest
Three Looted Antiquities at the Met Repatriated to Turkey
Nine other repatriated works were seized from Met Trustee Shelby White, whose collection was subject to a criminal investigation.
Required Reading
This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter?
The Wider World and Scrimshaw
On March 28, join the New Bedford Whaling Museum online and in-person for a symposium on global carving traditions from across the Pacific Rim.
Who Will Decide on the Future of a Miami Native Burial Ground?
Native activists say sacred remains and objects dug up from a Brickell construction site should remain there, but mega-developer Jorge Pérez is pushing back.
How Can a Curator Approach South Asian Futurisms?
How do I acknowledge my shortcomings while reckoning with obscured histories and the exclusion of subaltern narratives in the fine art landscape? A working checklist for curators.
MCA Chicago Presents On Stage: Frictions
Will Rawls, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, and Barak adé Soleil explore Blackness, queerness, movement, and dance in performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
The Complicated Legacy of Camilo Egas
The Ecuadorian painter, a leading figure of Latin America’s Indigenismo art movement, has been both praised and scorned for his representation of Indigenous peoples.
Tom Jones Zeroes in on Ho-Chunk Visibility
“I think about the young kids, the teenagers, and I think being able to see yourself represented in art is so powerful,” says the artist.
Haggerty Museum of Art Presents Tomás Saraceno in Dialogue With Dr. Somesh Roy
The artist and researcher will explore soot’s effects on climate change and public health in this online conversation.
Hundreds of Artworks by NYC Teenagers Go on View at the Met
The talented seventh through twelfth-grade students are recipients of the 2023 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
NYC’s Flatiron Building Sells for a Whopping $190M
The sale to outsider bidder Jacob Garlick puts an end to the protracted legal battle between the iconic skyscraper’s five former owners.
McKnight Visual Artist Fellows Discussion Series at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
The series features 2021 Fellows David Bowen, Mara Duvra, Rotem Tamir, Ben Moren, and Dyani White Hawk in conversation with renowned curators and critics.
The Best Memes Roasting the “We ❤️ NYC” Campaign
A graphic designer on Twitter created a hilarious send-up of the universally reviled logo, and the rest is history.
Did You Know These Museums Were Free for New Yorkers?
The “Free Admission” campaign is advocating to make ticket pricing information more transparent to visitors, who may be confused or misled by institutions’ language.
Huh! I like it. All the dancers lying in front of Winged Victory, regal clothing, and“Portrait of a Black Woman” (1800) by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, and Mona Lisa, Gives us an update on the culture we need. Very expensive rental and “I can’t believe we made it,” or was it I made it sums it up. Gorgeous. Good for them.
Benjamin Sutton are you sure you are not just nit picking? This seems is a terrific artwork, very well done, strong images, outrageous, elegant. In the tradition of Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama and Kahinde Wiley as well.. Glad you wrote the article.
Benjamin Sutton, thank you for the article. I do wish the article written here would have addressed the fact that this video calls attention to representation of people of color within museums, and the systems within museums that uphold whiteness and colonial ideals as normal and standard. I was hoping this article would take the opportunity to engage in dialogue about the questions that are in the forefront of American cultural “institutions”: how do we decolonize museums?
I have to confess I didn’t get this video. The Louvre? Mona Lisa, the Hello Kitty of the Renaissance? The grotesque absurdity of the Coronation of Napoleon? Maybe that was the point. Yes — the Winged Victory fossil — we should all fall down and lie at its feet. Rolling Stone, dumb as ever, seemed to think the video was a deathblow to Western Civ, but Western Civ is not the Louvre; the Louvre is mostly just swag from a long-gone previous edition. Western Civ still has its teeth and it’s still ripping up the world even if it does seem to be staggering around a bit.
I have to confess I didn’t get this video. The Louvre? Mona Lisa, the Hello Kitty of the Renaissance? The grotesque absurdity of the Coronation of Napoleon? Maybe that was the point. Yes — the Winged Victory fossil — we should all fall down and lie at its feet. Rolling Stone, dumb as ever, seemed to think the video was a deathblow to Western Civ, but Western Civ is not the Louvre; the Louvre is mostly just swag from a long-gone previous edition. Western Civ still has its teeth and it’s still ripping up the world even if it does seem to be staggering around a bit.