Nearly two years after Jay Z’s “Picasso Baby” music video was filmed at Pace Gallery in New York City, the woman instrumental in inspiring the visual, Marina Abramović says she felt “completely used” by the Brooklyn, New York rapper.
According to the performance artist, who recently spoke with Spike Art magazine, Jay Z was to support her institute in exchange for her assistance with the music video. In the end, Abramović says it ended up being “a one-way transaction.”
“I am very pissed by this, since he adapted my work only under one condition: that he would help my institute,” Abramović said. “Which he didn’t…The day before, he came to my office and I gave him an entire power point presentation and said: okay, you can help me, because I really need help to build this thing. Then he just completely used me. And that wasn’t fair. This is very different from Lady Gaga, for example, who has done great work for me. Just by having 45 million followers, she brought all these young kids into my public. I am very pissed by this, since he adapted my work only under one condition: that he would help my institute. Which he didn’t.”
Abramović went on to describe what happened to her as “cruel” and added that she’ll never take part in something similar again.
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“And in the end it was only a one-way transaction,” she said. “I will never do it again, that I can say. Never. I was really naive in this kind of world. It was really new to me, and I had no idea that this would happen. I’s so cruel, it’s incredible. I will stay away from it for sure.”
According to Complex, despite her recent comments about Jay Z and the “Picasso Baby” music video, Abramović was previously quoted as saying the experience “was great” and brought about “so much energy.”
For additional Jay Z coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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(May 20, 2015)
UPDATE: New York dealer and “Picasso Baby” video producer Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn is defending Jay Z against Abramović’s accusations, according to artnet News.
“Thank you for your donation,” says a receipt from Marina Abramović’s Hudson, New York institute, according to Rohatyn, who read parts of the document to artnet News over the phone today, the site reports.
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The receipt is numbered W984804 and acknowledges a substantial donation, Rohatyn says.
