Robert Beatty (artist)

Robert Beatty was born in 1981 on a cattle and tobacco farm in rural Kentucky near Nicholasville—"one of the most beautiful places in the world," according to Beatty.[5][6] Growing up, he "constantly" drew, teaching himself.[7] He began to experiment with his family camcorder, exploring circuit bending and video feedback,[7] and during high school later started investigating and playing music (Beatty was fond of music from Warp Records) and designing concert posters.[8]

Beatty never attended art school (or college at all),[9][10][11] instead moving to Lexington after high school.[5] He also worked for a time at radio station WRFL,[12] and supported himself for years working at a gas station and as a janitor.[5]

Beatty's graphic design work employs a distinctive style which has been called "trippy,"[13] "nostalgic,"[14] "psychedelic,"[10] "dark,"[15] and "mystifying;"[16] Beatty tries to evoke a "weird sense of wonder."[6] He began working by hand and today mostly uses Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop[11] to perform his "digital airbrushing,"[14] replicating and subverting traditional graphic design techniques using software.[17] However, Beatty says that his work often "goes back to drawing, because that's the simplest thing."[6] A prolific artist, Beatty has designed over 75 album covers;[2] after he decided to pursue creating art for other bands instead of just his own,[5] his album artwork rose in popularity with his covers for Challenger by Burning Star Core in 2008 and Tame Impala's Currents in 2015.[18][1][10]

In addition to album art, Beatty's illustration and design work has grown to include concert flyers,[19] magazines,[20] book covers,[21] fashion design,[22] music videos,[23] and news feature illustrations, with clients including Wired and the New York Times.[6][24][25] He has also released an artists' book, Floodgate Companion (2016), which Beatty "structured... more like an experimental film than a book." Beatty also designed the artwork for the soundtrack to the video game Thumper.[15] His video work has been featured at the Anthology Film Archives.[9] In 2019, Beatty created a lyric video for Cage the Elephant's song "House of Glass", from the album Social Cues.[4]

In 2018 he contributed "surreal"[26] art for use in fashion house Dries Van Noten's fall-winter 2018 collection.[22][27][28]

Beatty designed the cover art for historian and photographer Roger Steffens's anthology photobook The Family Acid: California (2019).[25][29]

His influences include Cal Schenkel, Piotr Kamler, Gary Panter,[1] Terry Gilliam,[10] and Lillian Schwartz.[11]

Beatty performs electronic and noise music solo under his own name and under the names Three-Legged Race and Ed Sunspot,[30][31][32] co-founded Hair Police in 2001[33] (who went on to open for a Sonic Youth tour),[5] and is or has been a member of experimental and electronic bands Warmer Milks,[1] Burning Star Core, Eyes and Arms of Smoke,[3] and Lexington collective Resonant Hole.[30][10] He was also a member of Ulysses alongside Apples in Stereo members Robert Schneider and John Ferguson.[30]

In 2014 he released the album Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata under his own name.[34]

Beatty also masters music, including Public Housing's 2014 self-titled album.[33]

• Three Legged Race – Persuasive Barrier (2012)[35]
• Robert Beatty – Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata (2014)

• Robert Beatty's official website