ART THOUGHTZ with Hennessy Youngman: How to Be a Successful Black Artist

Description

Art Thoughtz with Hennessy Youngman is an episodic, Internet-based talk show in which Musson performs in the guise of hip-hop "art critic" Hennessy Youngman. In a series of short, talking-head monologues, Youngman offers aspiring artists his irreverent views on the contemporary art world, from relational aesthetics and performance art to how to be a successful black artist. Musson uses hip-hop vernacular to critique the exclusionary language of art discourse, hilariously pitting hip-hop and art world idioms against each other in a dual parody of cultural clichés. (Hennessy Youngman's name references both the comedian Henny Youngman, who was famous for his one-liners, and Hennessy cognac, a status liquor in the hip-hop world.) With the Art Thoughtz series, Musson uses YouTube as a platform to expand his audience beyond art institutions and the art world; the series has become a viral video phenomenon.

States Musson, "Hennessy was created to explore the dissonance between speaker and speech. I thought it would be interesting to see how Artspeak would sound coming out of the mouth of someone without the seeming cultural authority to discuss what he was discussing."

Exhibition & Distribution Conditions

This work is HD video and must be shown with a 16:9, HD display.
High-Definition Video Guide