The Moving Painting

1316 Words3 Pages

Art has enabled people to express emotions, ideas, and aesthetic experiences for thousands of years. Through art people have been able to tell entire stories, convey messages, and incorporate things that are truly meaningful to them. The artistic creation known as the music video is also used to convey such messages. However not all music videos are necessary videos. In Kanye West’s “moving painting” known as “Power” West and his director use a number of different symbols, props, and images of artistic and historical significance to create an art piece based on the theme of power. By assessing and analyzing West’s video it can be concluded that such a take on creating a moving painting over a music video is not only innovative, but also pushes to the limits the traditional take on most modern day music videos. Music videos have tended to be used to always convey a message or convince those of the public to purchase an album or music from the particular artist in the video. The inspiration from these videos are far and wide, but often represent the type of personality or persona of the artist. In this particular video West, never wanted the video to be a music video. Amos Barshad a columnist who interviewed with Marco Brambila who helped direct the music video reports that West never thought he was creating a video. In fact Barshad records that, “according to Kanye, it's not a video ... it's a painting" (Barshad). The video opens up with a narrow shot of West and then expands to show his surroundings and a number of angel like and evil looking women. Arguably it appears as though the video may also be inspired by one of the world greatest painters as Yami Yenigun of National Public Radio claims that, “West video seems inspired by M... ... middle of paper ... ...ion of power. The element of power itself soon just becomes another part in the method of revelation where the actual source of power is slowly revealed to the viewer unbeknownst to them right before their eyes. Works Cited Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1994. Print. Barshad, Amos. "Vulture Talks to Marco Brambilla, the Director of Kanye's 'Power' Video." Vulture. N.p., 5 Aug. 2010. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. Cheney, Alexandra. "The Wall Street Journal." Speakeasy RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. Daily, Urban Staff. "Kanye West’s New Video Draws Inspiration From Greek Legend." The Urban Daily RSS. N.p., Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. Staff. "Deconstructing Kanye West's 'Power' Video - The Week." The Week. N.p., 6 Aug. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. "Symbols of the Video." The Vigilant Citizen RSS. N.p., Aug. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

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