“On The Wall” highlight: Andy Warhol and Michael Jackson

As MJVibe is spending so much time at the National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibition “Michael Jackson: On The Wall”, we just decided to do some flash highlights on some of the items throughout the next few months.

This will give some fans who cannot attend to check some of the pieces present at the Exhibition, some stories behind the arts for those who went or planning to go or even get the undecided to book their tickets!

One of the key item present at the National Portrait Gallery is from Andy Warhol. Not to mention that Andy Warhol gets a full room dedicated to him and his relationship with the King of Pop.

Andy Warhol painted different people for different reasons. His early 1960s pictures of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley and Natalie Wood – made when Andy Warhol was still finding his own fame.

However, by the 1970s, Warhol’s portraits focussed less on earlier, Hollywood stars, and instead portrayed the socialites, industrial personalities and pop stars well within the artist’s social circle.

Many of these later portraits were commissioned by their subjects, or by entrepreneurial patrons, such as the American investment banker Richard Weisman, who paid for a series of sports portraits from Andy in 1977, including his now well-known picture of Muhammad Ali.

The pictures served as an important income stream for Andy Warhol, and some disregarded the works’ artistic merit; “less a history of painting than a history of publicity” was how the New York Times’ Hilton Kramer described a 1979 Warhol portraits retrospective.

Nevertheless, when the art directors at TIME magazine sought to sum up the monumental degree of fame Michael Jackson enjoyed following the success of Thriller, they knew who to turn to.

Warhol had met Michael Jackson on a number of occasions, at places such as Studio 54, and the artist immediately accepted TIME magazine’s March 1984 cover commission, which was to be published shortly after the single Thriller peaked (surprisingly given its subsequent success) at number 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100.

In his diaries Andy Warhol mentions Michael Jackson more than two dozen times, most often discussing chance meetings at Studio 54. However, on two moments in 1984, Warhol actually talks about the portrait of Michael Jackson.

March 7, 1984: I finished the Michael Jackson cover. I didn’t like it but the office kids did. Then the Time people came down to see it, about forty of them. And they stood around saying that it should increase news stand sales. . . . Then later the Time guy called me . . . and said they were going to use it. I think the yellow one. And I told him to cross his fingers that it wouldn’t get bumped on Saturday and he said he would.

March 12, 1984: Time came out and the Jackson cover made it, it didn’t get bumped. And the article inside was crazy. It had them asking if he was going to get a sex-change operation and he said no. The cover should have had more blue. I gave them some in the style of the Fonda cover I did for Time once, but they wanted this style.

Exhibition curator Nicholas Cullinan from the National Portrait Gallery commented during the Press day:

“Andy Warhol always had a keen eye for coming talent and he was the first artist to use Michael as a subject, We have a whole room devoted to his images. Their relationship extended for around a decade until Warhol died in 1987. The exhibition isn’t really about Jackson memorabilia but we do display some that Warhol collected. When, in October 1982, Michael appeared on the cover of Interview magazine (which Warhol owned) it was a major step up for him. And there is also the Warhol silkscreen from 1984 which was used on the cover of Time magazine. It’s probably one of the more familiar images in the exhibition.”

In the room dedicated to Andy Warhol, you are there for a treat! Not only 3 of the Michael Jackson portraits are present but also some of Warhol’s personal items of the King of Pop, like a doll form 1984, some personal magazines, press shots and other memorabilia.

Also you can watch a short clip of the Michael Jackson’s video “Scream” where Andy Warhol makes a quick appearance and show how Michael respected Andy Warhol as an artist.

Check out the full review of the Exhibition “Michael Jackson: On the Wall” HERE

BOOK TICKETS HERE

Wolfson and Lerner Galleries National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Tickets with donation from £17.50 – £22Ticke