The LouvreвЂ™s stature depends on people believing that вЂњThe Coronation of Empress JosГ©phineвЂќ is the art, but the eye tells a different story вЂ“ hanging behind BeyoncГ© and her dancers, the painting is reduced to wallpaper. It takes just a few synchronized sashays to upstage DavidвЂ™s massive painting, replacing an ornate symbol of white authority with a celebration of black bodies in motion.

In front of DavidвЂ™s вЂњThe Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress JosГ©phine,вЂќ a court scene of relentless white extravagance, BeyoncГ© and eight black dancers hold hands and begin to dance. Much of the potency of the вЂњApeshitвЂќ video comes from the contrasts drawn between the вЂњwhiteвЂќ art on the walls and the black women on the gallery floors. They frequently film themselves moving in opposition to the frozen stillness of paintings by Jacques-Louis David, a French neoclassical artist whose workВ вЂ“ like вЂњThe Oath of the HoratiiвЂќ and вЂњMadame RГ©camierвЂќ вЂ“ invokes the Greco-Roman tradition. So BeyoncГ© and Jay-Z set about interjecting blackness into a space that has never placed much value on it, claiming one of the centerpieces of European culture with gleeful defiance. The Beatles in India: 16 Things You Didn't KnowД«ut the WhereвЂ™s Waldo? moments highlighting black figures are fleeting вЂ“ the possibilities for this in the Louvre, or any major Western art museum, are limited from the start.

(The video is directed by Ricky Saiz, who also helmed the вЂњYonceвЂќ video from BeyoncГ©вЂ™s eponymous 2013 album.) Viewers catch brief glimpses of a pair of black figures in Paolo VeroneseвЂ™s painting вЂњThe Wedding at Cana,вЂќ where Jesus turned water into wine, as well as a quick look at Marie-Guillemine BenoistвЂ™s вЂњPortrait dвЂ™une NГ©gresse,вЂќ a depiction of a black woman staring guilelessly back at the viewer. BeyoncГ© and Jay-Z rap in front of an Egyptian sphinx, and in galleries filled mostly with neo-classical French paintings вЂ“ white artists, white subjects вЂ“ the cameraВ singles out black faces. Some of their mission involves the strategic highlighting of non-white images already in the Louvre. In the video for BeyoncГ© and Jay-ZвЂs вЂњApeshit,вЂќ the first visual from the pairвЂ™s surprise joint album Everything Is Love, the two stars romp through the Louvre in Paris, seizing center stage in a high-culture palace that вЂ“ like most Western art museums вЂ“ historically made little room for non-white artists.

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