Musicians and visual artists have long had a beautiful, symbiotic relationship, especially when it comes to album covers: from the Velvet Underground’s collaboration with Andy Warhol, to Kanye West and George Condo, to Lady Gaga and Jeff Koons, and now Rihanna and Israeli-born artist Roy Nachum.
Last week, the “Bitch Better Have My Money” singer and Vanity Fair cover star revealed the name and cover art of her new album, Anti. The cover art, titled If They Let Us, Part I shows the singer as a young child with a crown over her eyes, engulfed in a veil of red paint. The entire image covered with Braille dots. It’s tinted with naïvety—here is a picture of Rihanna when she was not yet Rihanna but Robyn Fenty of Barbados—yet, with the red and the crown, also with an innate, inevitable power.
The cover image is actually part of the Israeli-born artist’s “Blind” series, which largely focuses on the concepts of inner and outer vision and the metaphor of “opening” viewers’ eyes. Most of Nachum’s works include subjects with obstructed eyesight and corresponding messages in Braille. “I wanted to do something that opened people’s eyes and let people think,” he said. “On the other side, it’s an opportunity [for] people who cannot see [to] experience visual art as well.” Nachum was so dedicated to this idea that he once spent a week blindfolded to further evolve his artistic vision. “I think it was one of the most important things that I did,” he said.
His style resonated with Rihanna, who was introduced to the artist’s work by longtime fan Jay Z. The two met, and the connection was instant, according to Nachum. “We see the same things. It was kind of like, when I tried explaining about my work, she was really into it,” he said. “We share the same perspective, perception.”
And so she asked him to begin his most public commission yet, fraught with symbolism unique to the life of the singer. The image of a child is an homage to her roots, and the blinding crown represents success—although Nachum added that he’s not sure if that is exactly the right word.
“Sometimes we’re running in the world of today but we’re running after achievement, after achievement,” he said. “The crown is oversized and covering what we’re supposed to see. We can’t see the success.”
The Braille on the work, although traditionally written by Nachum for his other pieces, is by poet Chloë Mitchell, who has worked with Rihanna as well as Kanye West. It reads:
Nachum also created a few other paintings for Anti, which you can see below. They are part of his interactive “Fire” series, where blinded viewers are able to run their hands over the canvas and the charcoal frame, creating visible strokes on the work. In this case, the strokes are from Rihanna herself.