kanye

Here’s the Naked-People-In-Bed Painting That Influenced Kanye’s ‘Famous’ Video

Photo: Tidal/Tidal

Kanye’s video for “Famous” features a medley of celebrities splayed out naked in a bed, enveloped by white sheets. Bam bam, bam bam, bam bam dilla, bam bam. It’s very Kanye, and like Kanye’s dexterous excavating and repurposing of older songs, it culls and expounds on an idea from another artist: Vincent Desiderio, whose Sleep has a sort of Raphael-by-way-of-Pasolini thing going on. It premiered at New York’s Marlborough Gallery in 2004 but was not completed until 2008. West’s version features himself, as well as Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Ray J, Amber Rose, Donald Trump, George Bush, Caitlyn Jenner, Bill Cosby, and Anna Wintour. Expect Desiderio’s notoriety to increase exponentially — Kanye made that guy fay-mous.

The Painting That Influenced Kanye’s ‘Famous’