Drake's collaboration with Sotheby's, which involved the rapper curating the exhibit's soundtrack and pairing songs to artwork kicked off with the 6 God in attendance last night. Drake spoke with Vulture about his interest in art, his favorite pieces, and how he chose the soundtrack.
Drake compares his passion for music to how the artist must feel about painting. "I’m always super curious how people choose to relieve themselves of the thoughts that are in their head," Drake tells Vulture. "For me, it’s words. That’s my craft. When I piece the right words together, it’s a very euphoric feeling, and I’m sure for these artists, when they get the right image on canvas, it must be the same thing. It’s such a euphoric feeling; so I’ve always been interested."
Interior design is also important aspect of art to Drake, who you'll remember has a Supreme rug as a centerpiece in his bedroom. "One of my biggest things in life is creating a home for myself," he says. "So I’m always looking for things, pieces to collect and put inside of this dream home that I have in my head, which will be done one day."
Great art, for Drake, also has to do with music and involves relating sounds to images. "The way we curated this event is thinking of the paintings as artwork for singles, like giving these songs new cover art," Drake explains. "You might not pair a Kehinde [Wiley] with an A$AP Rocky song, but it’s great to be able to give the songs a new look. When I look at visual art, I automatically think about how I can relate it to my music, or music in general."
Drake's favorite pieces from the exhibit are the "Kehinde piece," and "I really like the Popcaan song with the Barkley [L. Hendricks] piece," he says. "That’s one of my favorite pairings in the show. I really like the Anthony Hamilton “Lucille” pairing [with Jacob Lawrence’s The Lovers], and I like the [Terry] Adkins pairing with the Jamie xx record." However, "Kehinde is my favorite artist here," Drake makes clear.
Drizzy also explains how he chose to match up pieces with songs. "I didn’t even really look at the name," he admits. "It was more about what I heard when I looked at the visual. Like, when I looked at the visual imagery, where is the first place my mind goes."
Check out the exhibit on the second floor of Sotheby’s Sl2 gallery in NYC now. You can also read the whole interview over on Vulture.
