 This art work was painted by the American artist George Condo in 2010 and was an alternate cover for Kanye West’s 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. The painting consists of a man that seems to be dressed as a priest, the man seems to have a distorted face. The portrait of the priest has a very dark background, there are also white line that are horizontal and vertical. There is no text on the art witch is odd because it is an album cover, there being no title or artist name on the cover, the intention of this could be the artist saying that the project was created for the art rather than for commercial purposes and money. The art is very ambiguous and it is hard to figure out what the painter is trying to symbolize with the priest. The painting seems to be a mix of a modern style and it reminiscent of a baroque style that depicts members of the clergy. However, the Baroque era paintings in general look like they were done with more skill and detail than Condos artwork. This could be meant to show how modern society is destroying the beauty of older art, culture and traditions. The painting demands a lot of the viewer because it shows a priest in a form that isn’t usually seen. The art is very challenging for the viewer to figure out and it makes the piece of music more behind make it more intriguing.

What Condo is trying to show in this painting is how its hard to be religious in todays society witch is why the painting is so dark and the focus of the painting is so distorted. The painting makes the viewer feel like they are in a confessional face to face with a priest. This may be meant to show how it is difficult for people to recognize and face their mistakes. The reason why Condo depicts the priests as such an ugly creature is because he wants to make the priest hard to talk to or approach. This could be because the music in the album is about how mistakes are hard to acknowledge and come face to face with. The priest can also represent the thought of religion as a whole, so the viewer’s perspective of looking at an unattractive priest is a metaphor for how it is difficult for people to face the fact that they may need religion to better themselves. The music in the album could be about living a fast and dangerous life where the listener may need some religion. The priest having three mouths is also meant to show how people are uncomfortable with religion because sometimes religion contradicts itself. The priests having three mouths is similar to the idiom “talking out of both sides of your mouth” except Condo goes one up and gives the priests three months to really emphasize the confusion that can be found in religion. A tremendous reason why people are hesitant to become religious is because religious organizations often do things that contradict their beliefs. The mouths are all shown differently witch represents how the words or ideas coming out of them are also different. The mouths are all generally not that aesthetically pleasing witch could mean that the words that could come out of them can be just as unattractive to the person as the mouth is. This may be meant to show how people know they could use some religion to center them, but it is to confusing. There is a vertical line and there is a horizontal line, it looks like they could form a cross if the priest wasn’t blocking it. This could be a comment on how priests or other members of the clergy may put themselves before the religion financially or morally, causing the trust within the religion to be blocked. The difficulty to see the real beliefs of the religion is another reason why people are hesitant to become religious. 

The image does appeal to viewer because it shows a figure that is often seen in portraits or pictures depicted in a way that the viewer has likely never seen before. The image also makes the viewer try and think why the priest is painted like this. The cover shows that album probably has a darker tone and has some thoughts on faith. The image is different when known in context of the album and the musical artist. The artist Kanye West has often erratic behavior and had been as a controversial figure. That raises the question of the artist being depicted as the priest. The image would be looked at completely different if it were in art gallery. 