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Robert Beatty (artist)

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Robert Beatty, artwork for Burning Star Core, Challenger

Robert Beatty (/ˈbeɪti/ BAY-tee;[1] born 1981)[2] is an American artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky,[3][4] best known for his noise band Hair Police, his solo project Three Legged Race, and most recently for his work designing album covers, including Tame Impala's Currents (2015),[5] Kesha's Rainbow (2017), and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd's Dawn FM (2022).

Early life

Robert Beatty was born in 1981 on a cattle and tobacco farm in rural Kentucky near Nicholasville—"one of the most beautiful places in the world", according to Beatty.[6][7] Growing up, he "constantly" drew, teaching himself[8] and taking inspiration from MTV's series Liquid Television, Terry Gilliam's animated work, and Mad.[5] He began to experiment with his family camcorder, exploring circuit bending and video feedback,[8] and during high school later started investigating and playing music with a friend (Beatty was fond of music from Warp Records) and designing concert posters.[9]

Beatty never attended art school (or college at all),[10][11][12] instead moving to Lexington after high school.[6] He also worked for a time at radio station WRFL,[13] and supported himself for years working at a gas station and as a janitor.[6]

Artwork

Beatty's graphic design work employs a distinctive style which has been called "trippy",[14] "nostalgic",[15] "psychedelic",[11] "dark",[16] and "mystifying;"[17] Beatty tries to evoke a "weird sense of wonder."[7] He began working by hand and today mostly uses Adobe Illustrator and an old version of Photoshop[12] running on a ten-year-old computer[5] to perform his "digital airbrushing",[15] replicating and subverting traditional graphic design techniques using software.[18] However, Beatty says that his work often "goes back to drawing, because that's the simplest thing."[7] A prolific artist, Beatty has designed over 75 album covers;[2] after he decided to pursue creating art for other bands instead of just his own,[6] his album artwork rose in popularity with his covers for Challenger by Burning Star Core in 2008 and Tame Impala's Currents in 2015.[19][1][11]

In addition to album art, Beatty's illustration and design work has grown to include concert flyers,[20] magazines,[21] book covers,[22] fashion design,[23] music videos,[24] and news feature illustrations, with clients including Wired and the New York Times.[7][25][26] He has also released an artists' book, Floodgate Companion (2016), which Beatty "structured... more like an experimental film than a book." Beatty also designed the artwork for the soundtrack to the video game Thumper.[16] His video work has been featured at the Anthology Film Archives.[10] In 2019, Beatty created a lyric video for Cage the Elephant's song "House of Glass", from the album Social Cues.[4]

In 2018 he contributed "surreal"[27] art for use in fashion house Dries Van Noten's fall-winter 2018 collection,[23][28][29] with his work featured prominently in window displays at European retail locations.[5]

Beatty designed the cover art for historian and photographer Roger Steffens's anthology photobook The Family Acid: California (2019).[26][30] His work Place Holder appeared at 21c Museum Hotel Lexington in 2019–20,[5] and his concert posters were featured in the 2020 exhibit Cricket Press, John Lackey, and Robert Beatty: Gig Posters and Music Ephemera at the Living Arts and Science Center in Lexington.[31]

His influences include Cal Schenkel, Kenneth Anger, Piotr Kamler, Gary Panter,[1] Terry Gilliam,[11] and Lillian Schwartz.[12] Beatty also credits the film Fantastic Planet (1973).[5]

Music

Beatty performs electronic and noise music solo under his own name and formerly performed under the names Three Legged Race and Ed Sunspot,[32][33][34] co-founded Hair Police in 2001[35] (who went on to open for a Sonic Youth tour),[6] and is or has been a member of experimental and electronic bands Warmer Milks,[1] Burning Star Core, Eyes and Arms of Smoke,[3] and Lexington collective Resonant Hole.[32][11] He was also a member of Ulysses alongside Apples in Stereo members Robert Schneider and John Ferguson.[32] He records and produces music on old iPhones, stating he works with a "scavenger mentality" and "[doesn't] like to buy new things to make art or music with – I like to wait for things to come to me or to find things at thrift stores".[5]

In 2014 he released the album Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata under his own name.[36]

Beatty also masters music, including Public Housing's 2014 self-titled album.[35]

Discography

  • Three Legged Race – Persuasive Barrier (2012)[37]
  • Robert Beatty – Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata (2014)

Album art

Bibliography

  • Beatty, Robert (2016). Floodgate Companion. Portland, OR: Floating World Comics. ISBN 9781942801986. OCLC 1033512652.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "I'm artist Robert Beatty AMA". reddit. September 13, 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Robert Beatty, Suspended Passthrough". Atlanta Contemporary. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Leitko, Aaron (January 19, 2017). "Robert Beatty has become a one-man industry of psychedelic album art". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b Acevedo, Angelica (March 8, 2019). "Cage the Elephant Drop Thrilling New 'House of Glass' Song & Lyric Video: Watch". Billboard. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Brewer, Saraya; Lewis, Celeste (December 27, 2019). "Local Luminaries: Robert Beatty". Smiley Pete Publishing. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Joyce, Colin (January 26, 2017). "Meet the Noise Musician Responsible for All Your Favorite Mind-Expanding Album Art". Vice. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Baehr, Mike (January 30, 2017). "Art Gallery: Robert Beatty's Psychedelic, Retro-Futuristic Aesthetic". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Artist Spotlight | Robert Beatty". grafiktrafik. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  9. ^ a b c "Robert Beatty Interview". ISO50. May 1, 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  10. ^ a b Shields, Chris (May 22, 2017). "Interview: Robert Beatty". Screen Slate. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Kawaii, Keith (April 18, 2012). "Robert Beatty | Interview". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Gosling, Emily (August 29, 2016). "The Joy of Robert Beatty's Pre-digital Graphic Art". AIGA. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  13. ^ Umar, Akhira (February 28, 2018). "WRFL rides the wave of success into its 30th year". Kentucky Kernel. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Robert Beatty Artist Talk and Book Signing". 21c Lexington. October 3, 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  15. ^ a b Erickson, Steve (May 25, 2017). "Let It Happen". Village Voice. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  16. ^ a b Shamoon, Evan (September 29, 2016). "How Psychedelic Games 'Rez Infinite', 'Thumper' Fuse Electronic Music With Virtual Reality". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  17. ^ "GETTING WEIRD WITH ARTIST AND MUSICIAN ROBERT BEATTY". Flaunt. December 19, 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  18. ^ a b c d e "From Tame Impala to Three Legged Race: Robert Beatty is Finally Releasing an Art Book". Zurkonic. September 21, 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
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  23. ^ a b Bowe, Miels (March 21, 2017). "Wilco side project On Fillmore enlist artist Robert Beatty for trippy 'Jornada Inteira' video". Fact. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
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  25. ^ a b Pescovitz, David (April 1, 2019). "The Family Acid: California, a far-out photo album from a very unconventional family". Boing Boing. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
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  32. ^ a b Sienko, Chris (June 20, 2014). "Robert Beatty & Takeshi Murata Make Motorcycle-Riding Werewolves Cool Again @ Lampo". Gapers Block. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
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