Frank Ocean’s Cover Art For “Lens” Seems To Be Inspired By Kerry James Marshall Painting

One Twitter user noted the connection.

April 23, 2017

Frank Ocean has been releasing new music nearly every week on his blonded Radio show on Apple Music. Late Saturday night he released the new track "Lens" and with it came some new cover art. Twitter user Rina Nkulu noted that the art seemed to be quite similar to a Kerry James Marshall painting titled A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980), which Marshall later said was inspired by Ralph Ellison's novel "The Invisible Man."

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Marshall, who is from Birmingham Alabama, is known for his paintings of black life in America, and has a prolific set of work which is was recently showcased at the Met Breuer in New York. There is now a 35-year retrospective of Marshall's work at the the Museum of Contemporary Art that will be on display on until July 3, 2017 in Los Angeles. Marshall was also featured as one of Time's 100 most influential people for 2017.

You can stream the new Frank Ocean song "Lens" here.

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Frank Ocean’s Cover Art For “Lens” Seems To Be Inspired By Kerry James Marshall Painting Single artwork for Frank Ocean's "Lens."  
Frank Ocean’s Cover Art For “Lens” Seems To Be Inspired By Kerry James Marshall Painting