Lady Gaga has birthed the new album cover to her next album “ARTPOP.”
The pop star poses nude as a plastic version of herself, fairly makeup-less, with lights shining down on her to make her eyes rather placid, if not downright tired. And I say tired because she is straddling a shining blue orb, to which she may have just performed coitus or given birth, the photographer’s flash reflected back at us. She is gripping her breasts — spheres censored — an activity less sexual than protected. Renaissance and classical art is chopped and screwed in a sun’s rays pattern behind the giant hot pink letters of her name.
The artwork is by Jeff Koons, who she name-checks in her latest single “Applause.” Gaga Tweeted the lyrics in her reveal of the cover.
FULL ARTPOP ALBUM COVER.’One second I’m a Koons, then suddenly the Koons is me!’ #ApplauseJeffKoons pic.twitter.com/NdAOJ8XKSw
– Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 7, 2013
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As the nation is having its Naked Miley Cyrus conversation, it’s interesting to have yet another provocative image of solo female singers straddling balls that are not of the “Wrecking” variety. There’s a celebrity awareness in this image, and while I don’t think it’s really all that pleasing, it wants to intimate a larger conversation about plastic “pop” music and the legacy of art before it.
Or all the songs could just sound like “Applause” and I’d be OK with that.
“ARTPOP” is out on Nov. 11.