15 Artists We Discovered Thanks to Kanye West's Old Blog

Love him or hate him, Kanye West is a cultural trendsetter. Look no further than his collection with APC that dropped yesterday, causing a fuss over its prices yet making everyone wish they had tried to cop at least one of the tees. Beyond style and music, Kanye has put on a lot of visual artists, if not simply by bringing them to an audience outside of the art world. In a time where Jay-Z is probably teaching a lot of kids who Marina Abramovic is, it's pretty incredible when you examine how musicians influence and promote the strictly fine art world.

Back when Kanye used to blog, he was giving people a candid taste of his inspirations, perhaps as he was planning projects and releases. While he doesn't anymore, we remember the days when he name-dropped a mix of unknowns and legends in the art game. Maybe you already know about these, but maybe you don't. Check out 15 Artists We Discovered Thanks to Kanye West's Old Blog and learn about these creators before you're late.

RELATED: The Design Evolution of Kanye West's Album Artwork

RELATED: The Best YeezyGraffiti "Yeezus" Album Covers

RELATED: Breaking Down The Art References on Jay-Z's "Magna Carta Holy Grail"

New York-based video collage and installation artist, Marco Brambilla, is a master of taking pop culture imagery and mixing it with otherworldly, astronomical scenes. Kanye posted a still from his "Civilization" film that came out in 2008, which was two years before Brambilla directed 'Ye's "Power" video and three years before "Civilization" got a 3D version. Anyone who's seen his work at a large scale knows its power to expand one's imagination and feel like visual overlaod.

Website

Francoise Gamma's animations take the human form and place it into overtly sexual or highly athletic scenes. His lines are simple, but the end results are futuristic and sublime. Similar to Jim Joe, who Kanye collaborated with for Yeezus, Gamma's work has an understated brilliance. It's a shame that Gamma and Kanye haven't collaborated yet, or at least not that we know of.

Painter Peter Saul's mixture of pop, surrealism, and expressionism made him a leader and early adopter of pop art. Many have called him "the godfather of pop art," leading the way for artists like Warhol and Lichtenstein. The surrealist aspect of his work is fantastical and extreme, appearing alternately violent and pleasant.

Website

John Pound's humorous paintings, especially the ones Kanye posted of Garbage Pail Kids stickers, appeal to viewers in their familiarity and hilarity. He'll do hundreds of renditions of a single theme, and he's done collaborations with Stussy and JUXTAPOZ magazine. No matter what attracted Kanye to his work in the first place, Pound's pieces are definitely immediately likeable.

Website

Photographer Thierry Le Gouès has mastered colors, making all of his subjects darker, blacker, and in higher contrast one one hand, and brightly colored with gels in various hues surround his subjects on the other hand. He captures bodies in his own style, and it's no surprise that his work speaks to Kanye in its simplicity and confrontation.

Website

Artist Kara Walker may already be well-known to a contemporary art crowd, but her silhouette cut-outs aren't necessarily known to everyone. Her images combine sex and slavery in ever-fascinating ways that are both dark and provocative. While some of the images are more disturbing than others, Walker has undoubtedly made a lane for herself in her work that no one has come close to, visually speaking.

Website

Alberto Seveso's pops up on non-pegged blogs and Reddit threads frequently, because his underwater ink photographs are unqiue and worthy of being shared over and over again. Some of his images are so spectacular and well-lit that they appear computer-generated. Kanye only posted this image of his work, but it was enough for many to dig deeper into Alberto's portfolio.

While painter, sculptor, and photographer Robert Longo is known for his images of bodies frozen in mid-air, often appearing contorted and misshaped, Kanye posted his "Bodyhammers" gun series from the early '90s that depicts guns in a smooth, monochrome style. The images are striking and speak to violence and weapons in a direct, confrontational way (especially at the size they are physically shown in).

Website

Swiss artist Daniele Buetti works in nearly every medium and thrives most at installation work and text-based pieces. His works often appear both seductive and sad, which is certainly true of the "Dreams result in more dreams" series that Kanye posted. Some contain text, such as "Do not follow me – I'm already gone" "Which role does desire play in art?" Buetti's honest exploration of beauty and art's role in culture are probably what attracted Kanye to his work (and what continues to attract new viewers, as well).

Website

Belgium-based fine art photographer, Marc Lagrange, is the king of washed out, erotic images that could just as easily be ads for a high fashion brand as they could be non-commercial pieces in an art gallery. The vintage quality of his photos is striking and balanced, giving the viewer a good sense of how to combine the past and the present. Lagrange's work plays with elegance and sexuality in ways that we are sure has inspired Kanye beyond the post he did on him.

Website

Self-described "media thief" Gabi Trinkaus is well-known for reappropriating magazines by cutting up glossy pieces and applying them to canvas to critique the aesthetic of mass media. By combining portraits, text, and extravagant objects like champagne, Trinkaus carefully comments on a broader culture of material consumption, as well. Her collages have so much breadth, in addition to their depth, that it's easy to imagine Kanye being a fan of hers.

Website

Madrid-based photographer, Eugenio Recuenco, is a multi-faceted fashion photographer who continually pushes the boundaries of his medium. The series Kanye posted appears very painterly and photo-realistic, which speaks to the cinematic, story-telling levels Recuenco takes his work.

Website

New York-based Stephen Shanabrook became well-known for making chocolate praline casts of wounds from dead bodies, but the series Kanye introduced us to, "Paper Surgery," is more tame and was used by Comme des Garçons for their Spring/Summer 2010 ads. As a fan of Comme des Garçons and cutting-edge art, it's no surprise that the experimental work of Stephen Shanabrook was a must-post on his blog.

Website

New York-based painter, John Currin, takes a classic, Renaissance style and updates it to contain contemporary sexuality and social commentary. At times his work has been criticized for being pornographic or sexist, and although he hasn't particularly denied either, he's continually evolved and become extremely successful. Currin's blending of the past and present undoubtedly attracts Kanye, and many others, to Currin's work.

Website

French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, and advertising film director, Jean-Paul Goude, grew up being inspired by the advertisements in American magazines from the 1960s. He created iconic work as an art director for Esquire in the 1970s and made Grace Jones his muse in the late '70s and '80s. He's also known for manipulating photographs in exciting ways before the digital technology existed to do so, and for this reason, among others, people have called his work surrealist. There's no doubt that a master like Goude would inspire Kanye on a regular basis.

Website