Lizzo’s behind is going to be front and center of her latest artistic expression. At Art Basel, the premier art fair of the year, Lizzo will be contributing her own piece of art in the form of a painting partly created by her derriere.
Always unpredictable, Lizzo made the announcement of her bootyful debut as a painter in a TikTok video that starts off with the Grammy Award-winning singer holding a paintbrush in her hand in front of a canvas proclaiming herself “Lizzy Picasso.” After promoting her Art Basel performance on December 4 in partnership with American Express, she let fans know they could purchase her art piece during the livestream of her performance. She actually shows off some impressive painting skills in a timelapse video of her colorful abstract painting before she gives the painting her signature touch. After having paint dripped on her butt, Lizzo’s cheeks kiss her painting as a sort of painter's signature.
According to Lizzo, she was inspired to turn her famous butt into fleshy paint brushes by Art Basel itself, an art fair where extravagance is encouraged, and a massive $182,000 sneaker from late designer Virgil Abloh and a scratch and sniff purse are normal. “Doing this at Art Basel really inspired me and my team to just get weird,” Lizzo told the Miami Herald. The price for a ticket to her show’s livestream will cost you $9.99, but to take home a piece of art Lizzo put her heart, soul, and ass into might require you to explain to your kids why they no longer have money to send them to college. This year, experimental artist Grimes sold $6 million worth of NFT art full of flying cherubs set to EDM music, so Lizzo’s work of art may fetch a hefty price, especially considering she has a history of making art out of her body.
Lizzo has never been shy about using her God-given assets to make great art. Whether she’s unwaveringly confident in how her body is “thick as my skin is” (“Let Em Say”), how she’s more than a snack because “I’m the whole damn meal” (“Juice”) or how “thick thighs save lives” (“Tempo”) her songs are often body-positive manifestos. In the music video for her Cardi B-assisted single “Rumors,” the 33-year-old musician describes the internet bullying surrounding her weight while a heavy-set hieroglyphic twerks behind her in what surely was the scene of a few Julius Caesar parties. Letting her ass physically contribute to her art in the form of a painting is honestly long overdue for a woman who has made it her job to let fat people know their bodies are beautiful.
In August, Lizzo took her twerking advocacy to educational levels by holding an entire Ted Talk presentation on the Black history of twerking and how it helped with her self-confidence. In the talk, Lizzo details how she used to hate her ass due to growing up in the ‘90s, an era she feels didn’t widely accept voluptuous women and big asses. It wasn’t until she moved to Houston near the end of the ‘90s that she was immersed in a culture that celebrated the ass magic. After expounding on the West African origins of twerking and its religious connections, she made it abundantly clear what was once a point of insecurity for her had blossomed into a sign of pride in herself and her ancestry.
“I feel like the ass odds were against me, but baby, this badonkadonkdonk is going places. My ass has been the topic of conversation, my ass has been in magazines, Rihanna gave my ass a standing ovation. Yes, my booty, my least favorite part of my body,” Lizzo said.
So, when you see Lizzo’s butt cheeks splattering paint on a canvas at Art Basel, you’re watching a woman assert her body autonomy, one butt paint stroke at a time.
