Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles (detail), 1988, ceramic. The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica (L.2007.1.41), on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

This entry highlights a sculpture by Jeff Koons of Michael Jackson in honor of tonight’s episode of GLEE!

Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles (detail), 1988, ceramic. The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica (L.2007.1.41), on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Fabricated by Italian ceramicists using a gold and white “Rococo” palette and measuring at almost six feet across, Jeff Koons’ sculpture Michael Jackson and Bubbles is one of the great examples of the artist’s controversial approach to banal art. Koons’ likely based the work on a publicity photo of the King of Pop and his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. Michael Jackson will forever reign as King, but at the time Koons’ had the sculpture made, there were murmurings in the media and in society at large about Jackson’s lightening skin tone. In the sculpture, Koons presents Jackson with almost stark white flesh, which certainly harks back to the Rococo aesthetic but was more likely a tongue-in-cheek commentary on race and celebrity.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art writes the following about the sculpture:

…The work makes many people uncomfortable - angry, even. Why is that? Is it the physical relationship between the man and the animal? The fact that Bubbles is dressed? The mere fact of depicting Jackson at all? Or perhaps the gaudy use of gold? Jackson’s gilded costume brings out his red lips, and the dark make-up around his eyes. His porcelain-white skin may be the most unsettling detail of all.

I’ve seen the sculpture both in the context of LACMA’s Broad Contemporary Art Museum and at SFMOMA, but my reaction was nothing like that described above. Perhaps it is a generational thing, perhaps my ideas about art and race are more open-minded. In any case, the sculpture is certainly worthy of WTF Art History given that it can evoke so many different reactions.

One of the coolest venues in which Michael Jackson and Bubbles was displayed is the Château de Versailles. What better place than the palace of the fabulous Louis XIV for the King of Pop to sit admired by an international swarm of tourists?





What do you think? Art or commodity? Sublime or banal? Valuable or kitsch?