Michael Jackson and Bubbles

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Michael Jackson and Bubbles is a porcelain sculpture (106.7 × 179.1 × 82.6 cm) by the American artist Jeff Koons , which was created in 1988 as part of the Banality series.

description

The life-size porcelain sculpture depicts the American pop star Michael Jackson leaning back on a bed of flowers. On his lap, Jackson's right arm holds his chimpanzee Bubbles , who is clutching a white cloth. The singer and his pet have merged into one optical unit. This impression results from the similarity of their clothing in the military look, the uniform version of the figures in gold, black and red, as well as from the optical parallelization of individual body parts, such as Jackson's right hand with Bubble's right foot. The sculpture is held in a triangular composition and is designed for multiple perspectives through the posture and direction of the picture figures.

background

At the time the sculpture was created, Michael Jackson was already a superstar of international fame and, shortly after the release of the album Bad , was at the height of his career. Koon's work can be read as a commentary on the public and media interest that was not only directed towards Jackson's musicianship, but also increasingly towards his private life. At the time the sculpture was made, the media were speculating about Jackson's cosmetic surgery and skin lightening, which could have been an attempt to gain a larger non-Afro-American fan base. Koons had the sculpture made from white porcelain by Italian specialists . The choice of execution material may have been an ironic comment by Koons on these speculations. At the same time, the artificiality of Jackson's exterior is reinforced by the extreme unnatural nature of the coloring.

Bubbles was Jackson's animal companion. Bob Dunn, an animal trainer from Hollywood , bought it for Jackson from a medical testing laboratory in Texas. In the media he was glorified as Jackson's most loyal and best friend, who is said to have accompanied him on tour and supported him with housework. Koons used a press photograph as a template for the sculpture, which is almost identical to the plastic version. Only the posture of the King of Pop was slightly modified and adapted to the requirements of the three-dimensional medium - Koons changed Jackson's head position so that the two figures have different lines of sight. This increased the multiple perspectives of the sculpture.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles was auctioned off at Sotheby’s New York on May 15, 2001 for $ 5.6 million, setting a new record price for a work by Jeff Koons. Today it is owned by the Broad Art Foundation of entrepreneur and art collector Eli Broad . There are two other versions in Athens and in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art .

interpretation

Jeff Koons makes it a dedicated goal to reach the largest possible audience with his art. He also takes inspiration from the entertainment media, pop culture and Christian art . The portrayal of a media effective figure like Michael Jackson helps him to achieve this goal. In the 1980s, which were shaped by a new consumer and media culture, Jackson became a pop icon through his chart successes. Koons over-staged this mass-effective iconicity by creating Michael Jackson and Bubbles based on Christian icons . Koons himself commented on 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. (German: "I wanted to create him in a god-like iconicity. Admittedly, I always liked the radicalism of Michael Jackson; that he did absolutely everything that was necessary to communicate with people.") ”( Jeff Koons ) According to the artist served Michelangelo's Pietà as a source of inspiration for the triangular composition. At the same time, the work recalls its execution in porcelain and gold leaf on mass-produced Catholic saints and thus experiences so typical of Koons kitsch that makes his work to a wide audience and the art market attractive. According to Koons, Jackson should become a new healing figure that enables the viewer to grasp his cultural mythology.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles was read as a symbol of the human, unattainable desire for self-discovery. Jackson publicly indulged his infantile desires and carried out his optical reinvention in numerous cosmetic surgery procedures. Koons says he is fascinated by the way Jackson transforms images such as B. of himself and Bubbles, played off against each other; at the same time he sees Michael Jackson as a tragic figure. The assimilated monkey in Jackson's arm, which traditionally functions as a mirror image of humans in the fine arts, reinforces this aspect of self-search and self-discovery. The material aesthetics achieved artificiality and the saint-like remoteness of the figures also emphasize the unnaturalness as the tragically unsuccessful result of this search.

Reception in art

The American artist Paul McCarthy created several sculptures in echoes of Koons' work, such as the Michael Jackson and Bubbles (gold) sculpture , which was created from 1997 to 1999 and is in the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection , or Michael Jackson Fucked Up (Big Head) from 2002.

Exhibitions

In 2012, the exhibition concept at the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt caused a sensation when Michael Jackson and Bubbles was exhibited in an aesthetic and ironic dialogue with Egyptian mummies.

literature

  • Raphaël Bouvier: Jeff Koons - The artist as an Baptist . Munich 2012.
  • Vinzenz Brinkmann: Jeff Koons - The Sculptor. Exhib. Cat. For "Jeff Koons, the Painter & the Sculptor", Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, June 20 - September 23, 2012, Ostfildern 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Jackson and Bubbles on the Jeff Koons website. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Michael Jackson and Bubbles - Interactive Feature from October 2000 ( Memento from October 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Site of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  3. ↑ The Chimp of Pop . In: DRadio knowledge . ( dradiowissen.de [accessed on March 8, 2017]).
  4. ^ Jackson sculpture breaks record . BBC News , May 16, 2001; accessed on March 30, 2013.
  5. ^ Sotheby's New York to offer Jeff Koons' "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" for the first time at auction . Notice from Sotheby’s New York dated April 3, 2001. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  6. ↑ Jeff Koons, Michel Houellebecq : Jeff Koons by Michel Houellebecq, Versaille, June 18, 2008 . In: Jeff Koons Versaille , pp. 15–21, here p. 17.
  7. ↑ Jeff Koons, Michel Houellebecq : Jeff Koons by Michel Houellebecq, Versaille, June 18, 2008 . In: Jeff Koons Versaille , p. 16; and Jeff Koons, Cheryl Kaplan: "Koons & McCartney" . In: monopoly. Magazine for Art and Life , No. 3, June / July 2006, pp. 80–87, here p. 83.
  8. ^ Raphaël Bouvier: Jeff Koons - The artist as an Baptist . Munich 2012, p. 146 f.
  9. ↑ Jeff Koons, Michel Houellebecq : Jeff Koons by Michel Houellebecq, Versaille, June 18, 2008 . In: Jeff Koons Versaille, pp. 15–21, here p. 16.
  10. ^ Friedrich Christian Flick Collection in the Hamburger Bahnhof . In: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2004. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  11. ↑ Christie's website , accessed March 31, 2013.
  12. ^ Website of the exhibition in Schirn and Liebieghaus from June 20 to September 23, 2012 ( Memento from March 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 18, 2020
  13. ↑ impact, priapisch, phallic . In: Frankfurter Rundschau from June 20, 2012 ;. Retrieved January 18, 2020.