When rock stars take over the art world

The digitalisation of the music market has turned the record industry upside down since 2010. The album as an art object, accompanied by its booklet of texts, a real window into the artist's inner world, is becoming rarer. Music therefore seems to be consumed more than it is listened to, and artists, including the most renowned, suffer from the frantic race that this new production rhythm entails in the face of an audience that quickly tires of it. By following in the footsteps of David Bowie or Paul McCartney, some artists are clearly crossing the fine line between show business and art. Theo Cateforis, professor of art and music history at Syracuse University, analyses: "Music has always been visual, in one form or another […]. So getting into the visual arts is almost a natural tendency for these musicians. It is also a way to connect with the 'high culture' through a material work with a definable price tag, at a time when music has become practically free […]."

The singer and Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan is one of the musicians and artists who have made their way into the big galleries. This year, he is causing a stir in the art world with the exhibition "Restrospectrum", which traces his entire work. From the MAM in Shanghai to the Frost Art Museum in Miami, his paintings fascinate. His current exhibition at Château La Coste is also critically acclaimed, featuring a monumental lead sculpture entitled "Rail Car", installed in the vineyards. The setting is reminiscent of the film-maker's helmet that Dylan once wore. A cinematic signature that also emanates in a striking way from his paintings, reminding us of the artist's intention to stage a reality that imposes itself on us without being invited. 

The legendary Patti Smith, icon of Punk, shares with Bob Dylan the incisive look of a generation on an America that is looking for itself without really finding itself. Her immersive exhibition "Evidence" is currently creating a sensation at the Centre Pompidou until 23 January 2023. The audiovisual installation, conceived specifically for the centre in collaboration with the Soundwalk Collective, plays on kinesthesia, accompanied by some of her photographs, texts and original works that remind us of the versatility of her artistic talents. Patti Smith is also a well-known poet. She proudly represented Bob Dylan at his Nobel Prize ceremony, a tacit way of signifying the strength of their long-standing friendship, but also their shared commitment, by delivering a heartfelt interpretation of Dylan's famous song A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall. When Patti Smith expresses herself, whether through song or visual art, she has the ability to awaken the audience.

In 2015, Lenny Kravitz presented his work as a photographer for the first time with his exhibition "Drifter" at the Leica Galerie in Wetzlar. His style shows a sharp eye for the realities of a world that he has travelled extensively. In song as well as through the lens, Lenny Kravitz raises questions. And the famous question that made his success at the beginning of his career resounds in us: "Are you gonna go my way"? Because yes, the challenges of that time seem to have been transposed to our time. In parallel to this exhibition, the publication of a photographic book entitled "Flash" highlights his vision rather than his person, counterbalancing the fatality of a star system that exposes to the extreme. Anti-photos that professor Theo Cateforis describes as "a rebellious, even political, deconstruction enterprise, quite specific to the spirit of rock." In 2018, Lenny Kravitz joined forces with Dom Pérignon cellar master Richard Geoffroy for a New York event around his talents. This time he presents a black and white photographic series featuring actress Susan Sarandon and other close friends. A way of highlighting his view of the other, of being off-centre.

Lenny Kravitz's aesthetic talents do not stop there. His fine taste in interior design is seductive. His Brazilian fazenda made the front page of Architectural Digest in 2019, arousing the curiosity of connoisseurs about the layout of the spaces on this former coffee plantation. His Parisian home, meanwhile, will make the front page of Vogue Living in Australia for its fine decor - and its intriguing Basquiat. It is therefore no coincidence that, in 2003, the singer decided to launch Kravitz Design, a studio offering furniture-concepts with natural and industrial materials in a slow living spirit that invites you to escape. His collaboration with the famous designer Philippe Starck will establish his status as a designer with a collection of Mademoiselle chairs for Kartell. His work with the CB2 brand, the little sister of the Crate & Barrell furniture chain in 2021, brings a more daring style.

The rocker Marilyn Manson has also traced his path on the fringes of crowded stadiums and the meanders of notoriety, proposing an exhibition of watercolours entitled "The Golden age of Grotesque" in Los Angeles in 2002. His art will seduce Europe, first of all with a first exhibition in Cologne in the intimacy of the Brigitte Shenk gallery, entitled "Les fleurs du mal".

Later, growing critical interest, comparing his style to that of Shiele, led to an exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Vienna in 2011. Philipp Meier, former director of Cabaret Voltaire - the birthplace of Dadaism - comments: "At the time I hosted his exhibition, I was more interested in his 'oeuvre d'ensemble', i.e. not only his painting, his music and what emerges from his clips, but also his provocation in general, the sculpture he embodied through his person, a kind of performance art in itself. His presence also brought a significant spotlight on Cabaret Voltaire". Let's remember that Kurt Cobain had also exorcised the malaise of a disoriented youth through painting. These paintings were offered at auction at Christie's Rock & Roll Memorabilia auction in New York in 2004.

Through their works, these artists are now knocking on the door of an audience that had previously remained on the sidelines, a new means of making their cry heard beyond the silence of a canvas or a photo.