Michael Jackson and Bubbles

This banal sculpture made of porcelain has gold and white colors and portrays Michael Jackson sitting on the ground with a pet monkey. Jackson’s arm is around the monkey who is sitting on his lap and they both seem to be looking in the same direction as if they were waiting for someone to take their picture. The dimensions of this sculpture were life-like and could be viewed from all angles. The sculpture does not arouse much thought or send any message on the surface but must be tied into the realms of that day in age news and media in order to draw any type of conclusions. On the surface I’m sure that many viewers would be able to identify the human as Michael Jackson and the animal as a monkey.

Koons seems to be addressing the notion and portraying Jackson in a metrosexual way while cleverly substituting a monkey in place of a small child amidst the accusations to which Jackson dealt. Although, Koons actually meant for the sculpture to “pay homage to the greatness, he had watched Jackson moonwalk, and ‘everybody’s jaw just dropped, seeing that (Bloomberg.com).’” Koons says that he intended to display the sculpture in a renaissance style so as to portray Jackson as is; highly successful and in adoration of his accomplishments. However, I’m sure that Koons was aware of the possible negative connotations that could be placed upon such a work as well. In short, Koons ended up making a somewhat controversial sculpture of a popular celebrity whether he intended to do so or not.

This work reminds me mostly of Andy Warhol’s extensive and elaborate work that he did on Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol was somewhat obsessed with these two celebrities and gave many interesting titles to the names of his many paintings of them. Other similarities between these two artists work is the fact that Warhol made paintings after the sudden suicide of Marilyn Monroe and at a time when Elizabeth Taylor was reported to be very ill. So, like Koons, Warhol invoked a bit of controversy and questionable reasons as to why he chose those specific times to do works on certain celebrities. I think that since Jackson, Monroe, and Taylor happened to be hot-button issues within the news and media is the reason that Warhol and Koons did these works so that they could portray a sense of involvement in the world and to re-affirm that they knew what was going on in the world along with giving people something to think and talk about. These stunts could have also made both Warhol and Koons more popular because their names may have been associated with the mass-media.

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/michael-jackson6-29-09.asp

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=azbdRdMTbEN8

“Art to me is a humanitarian act, and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to affect mankind, to make the world a better place.” -Jeff Koons