![]() Roselee Goldberg, a curator, critic, and champion of performance art who helped produce the event, walked up to the bench and began twirling and waving her arms, then dropped down to one knee. Just last month, Kanye West told the Times that his latest album, “Yeezus,” was inspired by a Le Corbusier lamp Jay-Z repeatedly reminded the room, “I’m the modern day Pablo / Picasso, baby.” And it was also in keeping with the recent trend in rap-art world convergences. The stunt did recall “A Lot of Sorrow,” the National’s six-hour looped performance, organized by the artist Ragnar Kjartansson, of their song “Sorrow” at PS1 earlier this year. Little of Abramović’s-or, for that matter, Texas Senator Wendy Davis’ s-superhuman stamina was on display, as Jay-Z took numerous breaks and drank liberally from a bottle of Fiji Water. ![]() The artist George Condo, who had on sunglasses and New Balance sneakers, sat smirking and doing a nerdy-dad dance as Jay-Z rapped at him: “Fuck it, I want a billion / Jeff Koons balloons, I just wanna blow up / Condos in my condos.” (In the song, he also name-drops Rothko, Bacon, Basquiat, Warhol, da Vinci, Art Basel, Christie’s, the Met, the Louvre, and the Tate Modern.) “I just want a Picasso, in my casa / No, my castle / I’m a hassa, no I’m an asshole,” he began. When Jay-Z, who is forty-three, entered, wearing a short-sleeved white button-down shirt, jeans, a gold chain with a hefty pendant, and a gold watch, everyone cheered. Roving steady-cam operators followed the instructions of Mark Romanek, the director of what will become a music video featuring more middle-aged white people than are usually in rap videos. A crowd of less famous art-world denizens and cool-looking people (some of whom had been specially cast) loitered along the walls of the gallery, except when they were invited to scurry right up to Jay-Z. These guests took turns on or near a wooden bench positioned across from a low platform on which the rapper stood, except when he was prowling around. Jay-Z (or Shawn Carter, or Hova, as he’s alternately known) was continuously performing “Picasso Baby,” the second song on his new album, “Magna Carta… Holy Grail,” to a succession of visual artists, museum directors, gallerists, Hollywood folk, and Pablo’s granddaughter Diana Widmaier Picasso.
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