Holy Mother of Blue Ivy, this is genius.
Ever find yourself staring into the depths of a gorgeous, iconic painting, only to wonder: “what the hell does this mean?” Unless you’ve studied works by everyone from Hyacinthe Rigaud to Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (uhh, nope), it can be really hard to puzzle out the messages behind their masterpieces.
Queen B knows your pain. Or at least Leigh Silver does – she’s carefully curated an impressive collection of Beyonce lyric-marked art pieces, and the results are irreplaceable. Here are some favorites.
“Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist)” by Jackson Pollock:
“Oath of the Horatii” by Jacques-Louis David:
“Bacchus” by Caravaggio:
“Susanna and the Elders” by Artemisia Gentileschi:
“The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt:
“Woman with White Stockings” by Gustave Courbet:
“Portrait of Henry VIII” by Hans Holbein the Younger:
And the original naughty girls, “Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters” by the Fontainebleau school:
See the full set at Beyonce Art History, and check out its new brother project (husband project?) Jay Z Art History if you can’t get enough! You can also submit your own lyric/artwork ideas to Leigh’s Twitter.
Thanks to her, the next time you visit a gallery you can skip the audio tour – just play a little Bey or Jay and werk it out.
All photos via BeyonceArtHistory.
