Anyone who finds the hall at the very end of this Michael Jackson exhibition, room 14 of 14, will find themselves a little bit once more.
16 German Jackson fans, each recorded individually with image and sound, and assembled into a virtual choir in the National Portrait Gallery: This is the work of Candice Breitz, a South African artist, created in 2005. An artistic homage to the fan culture around regarding the King of Pop, says Lucy Dahrson, the curator of the exhibition:
“They are totally different, from very different backgrounds. Each one was recorded in a professional studio in Berlin, and the 16 individual parts are now on display here with us as a single video installation. It’s very moving and exciting to see .”
Portraits as diverse as his music
The exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery shows 48 artists from all over the world. Some knew Jackson personally, such as Andy Warhol, others have worked through their youth memories, some were specially commissioned to do a work. Lucy Dahrson herself is surprised by the range with which the artists have approached the pop icon Michael Jackson:
“The range of different ways the artists have approached Michael Jackson is really fascinating.”
Michael Jackson in oil on canvas, on huge carpet pictures, Michael Jackson exaggerated as a Jesus figure, or his importance for the black community, in the same breath as Rosa Park and Martin Luther King: Whoever walks through the exhibition is amazed at how many people projected into the Indiana man from around the world, from different generations, and over many years. Curator Lucy Dahrson says she wasn’t aware of this either: “I didn’t realize the extent to which he had inspired others. Now we have nothing but new works here by really important artists.”
The exhibition particularly emphasizes Jackson’s Afro-American roots. Todd Gray, for example, was already famous before he became Michael Jackson’s house photographer. He lived in Ghana for many years and everyone he spoke to there considered Jackson one of their own.
Lucy Dahrson: “Everyone he spoke to in Ghana considered him one of them.”
The “King of Pop” an art connoisseur?
One of the last portraits that Michael Jackson himself commissioned was by Kehinde Wiley and shows the pop artist in the style of a famous Rubens painting of the king on a horse, with a blue cloak and in front of a dramatic cloudy backdrop. It mightn’t be more kitschy, but the painter says Michael Jackson really understood it.
Curator Dahrson: “Kehinde told us that the two talked regarding Rubens and his style and brushwork. Michael Jackson also had a whole library with thousands of art books.”
“On the wall” can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery in London until mid-October, following which it will go to Paris and in March next year to the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.
