Robert Beatty ( /ˈbeɪti/ BAY-tee; [1] born 1981) [2] is an American artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky, [3] [4] best known for his noise band Hair Police, his solo project Three Legged Race, and most recently for his work designing album covers, including Tame Impala's Currents (2015), [5] Kesha's Rainbow (2017), and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd's Dawn FM (2022).
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. [6] [7] Growing up, he "constantly" drew, teaching himself [8] and taking inspiration from MTV's series Liquid Television, Terry Gilliam's animated work, and Mad. [5] He began to experiment with his family camcorder, exploring circuit bending and video feedback, [8] and during high school later started investigating and playing music with a friend (Beatty was fond of music from Warp Records) and designing concert posters. [9]
Beatty never attended art school (or college at all), [10] [11] [12] instead moving to Lexington after high school. [6] He also worked for a time at radio station WRFL, [13] and supported himself for years working at a gas station and as a janitor. [6]
Beatty's graphic design work employs a distinctive style which has been called "trippy", [14] "nostalgic", [15] "psychedelic", [11] "dark", [16] and "mystifying;" [17] Beatty tries to evoke a "weird sense of wonder." [7] He began working by hand and today mostly uses Adobe Illustrator and an old version of Photoshop [12] running on a ten-year-old computer [5] to perform his "digital airbrushing", [15] replicating and subverting traditional graphic design techniques using software. [18] However, Beatty says that his work often "goes back to drawing, because that's the simplest thing." [7] 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, [6] his album artwork rose in popularity with his covers for Challenger by Burning Star Core in 2008 and Tame Impala's Currents in 2015. [19] [1] [11]
In addition to album art, Beatty's illustration and design work has grown to include concert flyers, [20] magazines, [21] book covers, [22] fashion design, [23] music videos, [24] and news feature illustrations, with clients including Wired and the New York Times. [7] [25] [26] 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. [16] His video work has been featured at the Anthology Film Archives. [10] 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" [27] art for use in fashion house Dries Van Noten's fall-winter 2018 collection, [23] [28] [29] with his work featured prominently in window displays at European retail locations. [5]
Beatty designed the cover art for historian and photographer Roger Steffens's anthology photobook The Family Acid: California (2019). [26] [30] His work Place Holder appeared at 21c Museum Hotel Lexington in 2019–20, [5] and his concert posters were featured in the 2020 exhibit Cricket Press, John Lackey, and Robert Beatty: Gig Posters and Music Ephemera at the Living Arts and Science Center in Lexington. [31]
His influences include Cal Schenkel, Kenneth Anger, Piotr Kamler, Gary Panter, [1] Terry Gilliam, [11] and Lillian Schwartz. [12] Beatty also credits the film Fantastic Planet (1973). [5]
Beatty performs electronic and noise music solo under his own name and formerly performed under the names Three Legged Race and Ed Sunspot, [32] [33] [34] co-founded Hair Police in 2001 [35] (who went on to open for a Sonic Youth tour), [6] 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. [32] [11] He was also a member of Ulysses alongside Apples in Stereo members Robert Schneider and John Ferguson. [32] He records and produces music on old iPhones, stating he works with a "scavenger mentality" and "[doesn't] like to buy new things to make art or music with – I like to wait for things to come to me or to find things at thrift stores". [5]
In 2014 he released the album Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata under his own name. [36]
Beatty also masters music, including Public Housing's 2014 self-titled album. [35]
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Even Robert Beatty returns to the fold, turning in some splendid stately artwork.
Robert Beatty ( /ˈbeɪti/ BAY-tee; [1] born 1981) [2] is an American artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky, [3] [4] best known for his noise band Hair Police, his solo project Three Legged Race, and most recently for his work designing album covers, including Tame Impala's Currents (2015), [5] Kesha's Rainbow (2017), and limited-edition artwork for The Weeknd's Dawn FM (2022).
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. [6] [7] Growing up, he "constantly" drew, teaching himself [8] and taking inspiration from MTV's series Liquid Television, Terry Gilliam's animated work, and Mad. [5] He began to experiment with his family camcorder, exploring circuit bending and video feedback, [8] and during high school later started investigating and playing music with a friend (Beatty was fond of music from Warp Records) and designing concert posters. [9]
Beatty never attended art school (or college at all), [10] [11] [12] instead moving to Lexington after high school. [6] He also worked for a time at radio station WRFL, [13] and supported himself for years working at a gas station and as a janitor. [6]
Beatty's graphic design work employs a distinctive style which has been called "trippy", [14] "nostalgic", [15] "psychedelic", [11] "dark", [16] and "mystifying;" [17] Beatty tries to evoke a "weird sense of wonder." [7] He began working by hand and today mostly uses Adobe Illustrator and an old version of Photoshop [12] running on a ten-year-old computer [5] to perform his "digital airbrushing", [15] replicating and subverting traditional graphic design techniques using software. [18] However, Beatty says that his work often "goes back to drawing, because that's the simplest thing." [7] 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, [6] his album artwork rose in popularity with his covers for Challenger by Burning Star Core in 2008 and Tame Impala's Currents in 2015. [19] [1] [11]
In addition to album art, Beatty's illustration and design work has grown to include concert flyers, [20] magazines, [21] book covers, [22] fashion design, [23] music videos, [24] and news feature illustrations, with clients including Wired and the New York Times. [7] [25] [26] 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. [16] His video work has been featured at the Anthology Film Archives. [10] 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" [27] art for use in fashion house Dries Van Noten's fall-winter 2018 collection, [23] [28] [29] with his work featured prominently in window displays at European retail locations. [5]
Beatty designed the cover art for historian and photographer Roger Steffens's anthology photobook The Family Acid: California (2019). [26] [30] His work Place Holder appeared at 21c Museum Hotel Lexington in 2019–20, [5] and his concert posters were featured in the 2020 exhibit Cricket Press, John Lackey, and Robert Beatty: Gig Posters and Music Ephemera at the Living Arts and Science Center in Lexington. [31]
His influences include Cal Schenkel, Kenneth Anger, Piotr Kamler, Gary Panter, [1] Terry Gilliam, [11] and Lillian Schwartz. [12] Beatty also credits the film Fantastic Planet (1973). [5]
Beatty performs electronic and noise music solo under his own name and formerly performed under the names Three Legged Race and Ed Sunspot, [32] [33] [34] co-founded Hair Police in 2001 [35] (who went on to open for a Sonic Youth tour), [6] 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. [32] [11] He was also a member of Ulysses alongside Apples in Stereo members Robert Schneider and John Ferguson. [32] He records and produces music on old iPhones, stating he works with a "scavenger mentality" and "[doesn't] like to buy new things to make art or music with – I like to wait for things to come to me or to find things at thrift stores". [5]
In 2014 he released the album Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata under his own name. [36]
Beatty also masters music, including Public Housing's 2014 self-titled album. [35]
![]() |
![]() |
Even Robert Beatty returns to the fold, turning in some splendid stately artwork.