John Berger’s Ways of Seeing was an interesting read and watch, and it got me thinking a lot about context, the male gaze, and the way art and culture have been commodified, both in the past and now. A cultural piece I think connects well with the ideas Berger explores is Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF), especially the album cover. For this reflection, I’ll focus on the album itself and the context of its release in relation to Berger’s ideas, leaving aside anything Kanye has done or said since, even though that could add another layer of analysis.
The album cover is bold and controversial. It’s mostly a red background with a surreal painting by George Condo. The image shows a scene of a black man (assumed to be Kanye) holding a beer with a nude white female figure straddling him. The figure, which Kanye referred to as a “phoenix,” has no arms and features animal-like traits, including wings, a polka-dot tail, and a fur-like leg. The nudity and bizarre elements make the image striking, but it was deemed too explicit for release. As a result, the final cover pixelates the figures, making them blurry but still recognizable.
This censorship is worth exploring. Plenty of albums before and after MBDTF have featured nudity or explicit imagery and weren’t censored. For example, Country Life by Roxy Music and Nothing Shocking by Jane’s Addiction included nudity without issue. Berger’s discussion of how society perceives nudity versus nakedness is really relevant here. Some of the most celebrated works of art are nude figures, so why was this painting treated differently? According to Condo, Kanye wanted the cover to be controversial and get censored as a publicity stunt. But context matters, when MBDTFcame out in 2010, Kanye was still dealing with backlash after the Taylor Swift VMA incident, which may have influenced those who make decisions about censorship.
Looking at the image through Berger’s lens, the difference between nudity and nakedness is key. For example, the nudity on the aformentioned albums can be seen as a powerful statement of body reclamation, if the artists were female, but these albums and many others are made by men featuring sexually explicit women. In Kanye's case, the female figure isn’t just nude—she’s dehumanized and turned into a distorted object for the viewer’s gaze. Her identity is reduced to her breasts, tail, and other exaggerated features. This aligns with Berger’s idea that women in art are often portrayed as objects to be looked at, particularly by men. As a side note, MBDTF being made by a black man, showcasing himself with a white female figure on top, would certainly have been subject to cultural contexts of race, but that is not the focus of this journal.
Interestingly, this idea of objectification ties directly into the themes of MBDTF. Songs like “Power,” “Runaway,” and “Devil in a New Dress” dive into fame, relationships, and societal pressure. Kanye often reflects on how these systems affect him and others, showing a surprising level of self-awareness. The censorship of the cover adds another layer—it creates mystery and makes people want to see the original image. In a way, this plays into the sensationalism that Kanye critiques in his music.
Ultimately, the album cover and its censorship highlight the themes Berger explores in Ways of Seeing. It’s not just about the art itself but the broader cultural and social systems surrounding it. The cover forces us to question how we look at art, fame, and identity, making it a good example of the connections between art and society, especially in a time when artists have almost direct communication with their audience and the world at large.
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Image Sources:
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Censored Cover
