The Carters flank the canvas (mirroring a selfie they snapped in the same spot in 2014), pictured in a manner and image that dares to be as potently and powerfully iconic as the painting itself. Of course, there’s Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa too, which bookends the video. Video for “Apeshit” by The Carters, 2018, featuring the Winged Victory of Samothrace, directed by Ricky Saiz. Their conquest is writ large enough in the featured artworks from Jacques-Louis David’s The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon to the imposing Greek sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace, while throughout the track, rings the refrain, “I can’t believe we made it.” Video for “Apeshit” by The Carters, 2018, featuring The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, directed by Ricky Saiz. In still and stately poses, the couple stages an intervention and claims themselves a place in the Louvre’s halls, announcing their arrival in the hallowed tradition of art, whether you like it or not. The art featured in this video, though, is not hung with air quotes or treated with an over-awed hand, but pictured alongside a more contemporary art form: the power union of Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Video for “Apeshit” by The Carters, 2018, featuring the Venus de Milo, directed by Ricky Saiz. In the Carters’ universe, where wealth resides, art is not very far behind. In “Apeshit,” too, lyrics on “expensive fabrics” and “expensive habits,” and a litany of luxury brand names (Richard Mille, Lamborghini, Alexander Wang, to name a few) are aligned with snatches of art and opulent views of the Louvre. Of the latter, both Beyoncé and Jay-Z are no strangers to: their videos for “7/11” and “Picasso Baby” name dropped art casually enough. And rightly so, for there is a lot to unpack-from the video’s juxtaposition of black bodies against an Eurocentric art tradition to the added framing of art as commodity. Since neither the couple nor director Ricky Saiz have shed light how these artworks were picked for the film, rants, raves, and essays have been generated on its significance and symbolism. Filmed in the Louvre, the short sees the Carters posing, cavorting, and generally hanging out amid the museum’s world-beating art collection. Last month, the internet naturally went apeshit for “Apeshit,” the first video to emerge from Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s surprise joint project, Everything is Love.
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