| Michael Jackson and Bubbles | |
|---|---|
 The artist's proof, on display at The Broad | |
| Artist | Jeff Koons |
| Year | 1988 |
| Medium | Porcelain |
| Subject | Michael Jackson |
| Dimensions | 110 cm× 179 cm× 83 cm(42 in× 70.5 in× 32.5 in) |
Michael Jackson and Bubbles is a porcelain sculpture (42 x 70.5 x 32.5 in) by the American artist Jeff Koons. It was created in 1988 within the framework of his Banality series.
The life-size porcelain sculpture depicts the American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson leaning back on a flower bed. [1] On his lap reclines his domesticated chimpanzee Bubbles who clasps a white cloth. Jackson and his pet form an optical unit. They wear similar clothing, are colored homogeneously and parts of their bodies are paralleled with each other, such as Jackson's right hand and Bubbles' paw. The sculpture has been arranged in a triangular and multi-perspective composition.
Bubbles was Jackson's domestic animal who was bought by the artist from a Texas research facility in 1983. It has been claimed by the media that he was Jackson's best and faithful friend who even joined the singer on his world tours and helped in the household. [2] Jeff Koons used a press photo of Jackson and Bubbles as a template for his sculpture. [1] It is almost identical to the artist's work except for a slight variation of the posture. Koons changed Jackson's direction of view and thus adjusted the composition to the requirements of a sculptural work which has to take into account many different viewing angles.
At the time the sculpture was created, Jackson had already become a world-famous performer. Having achieved a sales record with his album Bad , he was at the pinnacle of his career. Koons artwork can be read as a comment on the great media interest that has been directed at Jackson's life as musician and as a private person. [3]
Three of the Michael Jackson and Bubbles sculpture were made. One was sold at Sotheby's on 15 May 2001, when it was auctioned off to the record price of 5.6 million dollars. [1] The artist's proof is owned by the Broad Art Foundation of businessman and art collector Eli Broad and is displayed in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (It is now at The Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles). The two other versions are in Oslo in the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art [4] and in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. [5]
Jeff Koons has stated that his works of art should reach the largest possible audience. For this purpose he sought inspiration in entertainment media, pop culture and Christian art. The depiction of a media effective person like Michael Jackson might have helped him to achieve this aim. [3] In the 1980s, which were characterized by a new consumer and media culture, Jackson enjoyed an enormous chart success and became a pop icon. Koons now overemphasized the King of Pop's icon-like manner paralleling him with Christian icons. The artist once said about the sculpture:
I wanted to create him in a very god-like icon manner. But I always liked the radicality of Michael Jackson; that he would do absolutely anything that was necessary to be able to communicate with people.
— Jeff Koons [3]
Koons has stated that he was also inspired by the triangular composition of Michelangelo's Pietà . [6] Furthermore, the work's material reminds of catholic mass-produced figures of saints which are usually manufactured in porcelain and gold leaf. Thus the sculpture becomes a kitschy object that is appealing for a wide public and the art market. [7] Koons claims that he wanted to depict Jackson as a new redemptive figure who enables people to discover their own cultural mythology. [8]
Michael Jackson and Bubbles has also been read as a symbol of the human desire for self-discovery. [9] Jackson demonstrated publicly his childlike personality and tried to reinvent himself by means of plastic surgery. Koons was fascinated by the self transformations of Jackson and the way he played with images such as himself against Bubbles. [3]
The American artist Paul McCarthy created some sculptures relating to Michael Jackson and Bubbles by Jeff Koons, e.g. Michael Jackson and Bubbles (Gold) [10] from 1997 to 1999 (today in the Christian Flick Collection) or Michael Jackson Fucked Up (Big Head) [11] from 2002.
In 2012 the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt attracted attention displaying Michael Jackson and Bubbles next to Egyptian mummies and thus established an aesthetic and ironic dialogue between the objects. [12]
Odd Nerdrum is a Norwegian figurative painter, born in Sweden. His work is held by museums worldwide. Themes and style in Nerdrum's work reference anecdote and narrative. Primary influences by the painters Rembrandt and Caravaggio help place his work in direct conflict with the abstraction and conceptual art considered acceptable in much of Norway. Nerdrum creates six to eight paintings a year. They include still life paintings of small, everyday objects, portraits and self-portraits, and large paintings allegorical and apocalyptic in nature. The figures in Nerdrum's paintings are often dressed as if from another time and place.
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts as well as commercial media and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. His influential work draws from the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of postwar Japanese culture.
Istvan Kantor is a Canadian performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and one of the early members of Neoism.
Dakis Joannou is a Greek Cypriot industrialist and art collector. He is considered to be one of the leading collectors of contemporary art in the world and is famous for acquisitions such as the Jeff Koons-designed yacht 'Guilty'.
Bubbles is a chimpanzee once kept as a pet by the American singer Michael Jackson, who bought him from a Texas research facility in the 1980s. Bubbles frequently traveled with Jackson, drawing attention in the media. In 1987, during the Bad world tour, Bubbles and Jackson drank tea with the mayor of Osaka, Japan.
Jeffrey Lynn Koons is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. He lives and works in both New York City and his hometown of York, Pennsylvania. His works have sold for substantial sums, including at least two record auction prices for a work by a living artist: US$58.4 million for Balloon Dog (Orange) in 2013 and US$91.1 million for Rabbit in 2019.
Christian Pontus Andersson is a Swedish artist and sculptor, living in Södermalm, Stockholm.
The Liebieghaus is a late 19th-century villa in Frankfurt, Germany. It contains a sculpture museum, the Städtische Galerie Liebieghaus, which is part of the Museumsufer on the Sachsenhausen bank of the River Main. Max Hollein was the director from January 2006 to 2016, followed by Philipp Demandt.
The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a privately owned contemporary art gallery in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. The collection's main focus is the American appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it is currently developing towards the international contemporary art scene, with artists like Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Tom Sachs, Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, and Cai Guo-Qiang. The museum gives 6-7 temporary exhibitions each year. Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art collaborates with international institutions and produces exhibitions that travel worldwide. In 2012 the museum moved to two new buildings designed by Renzo Piano in Tjuvholmen.
Banality is a series of sculptures by American artist Jeff Koons. The works were unveiled in 1988 and have become controversial for their use of copyrighted images. Several editions of the sculptures have sold at auction for millions of dollars.
Lari George Pittman is a Colombian-American contemporary artist and painter. Pittman is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Painting and Drawing at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.
Gardar Eide Einarsson is a Norwegian-born artist who lives and works in Tokyo and New York City. His work encompasses installation, printmaking, painting and sculpture.
Max Hollein is an Austrian art historian and the current CEO and Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He served as Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco from July 2016, until April 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that Hollein would become its 10th director.
Tjuvholmen skulpturpark is a sculpture park in the Tjuvholmen neighborhood of Frogner borough in Oslo, Norway. It is close to Aker Brygge.
Vinzenz Brinkmann is a German classical archaeologist.
American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson (1958–2009) is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century and one of the most successful and influential entertainers of all time. Often referred as the "King of Pop", his achievements helped to complete the desegregation of popular music in the United States and introduced an era of multiculturalism and integration that future generations of artists followed. His influence extended to inspiring fashion trends and raising awareness for social causes around the world.
Rabbit is a 1986 series of three identical stainless steel sculptures by Jeff Koons. One of the editions of Rabbit is the most expensive work sold by a living artist at auction, being sold for $91.1 million in May 2019.
Balloon Dog is a series of sculptures by the American artist Jeff Koons. There are different versions of this sculpture, made between 1994 and 2000, with each having a different color: blue, magenta, yellow, orange and red.
Oksana Leontiyivna Zhnikrup was a Ukrainian ceramicist, whose works are held in the collection of the National Folk Decorative Art Museum. The sculpture Seated Ballerina by Jeff Koons is closely inspired by her ceramic works of ballet dancers, such as Ballerina Lenochka.
