An exhibition celebrating the pop culture power of Michael Jackson opens in Paris on Friday (November 23) featuring portraits by Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, along with a video of a choir of amateurs belting out the singer’s iconic “Thriller” album.
The exhibition “Michael Jackson: On the Wall” was originally shown at London’s National Portrait Gallery but has come to Paris with new works added, including a greater focus on his impact on choreography.
Nicholas Cullinan, director at the National Portrait Gallery, said the late pop star’s reach had attracted a public who don’t often visit London’s galleries including 34 percent of people under 24 and 34 percent coming from an ethnic minority, hoping the same magic might work in Paris.
The curator of the Paris version of the exhibition Vanessa Desclaux mentioned the context had also changed. Many of the works tackle the singer in the context of race and identity politics which Desclaux says are more taboo topics in France than in Britain.
Elsewhere in the exhibition artist Kehinde Wiley’s “Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II (Michael Jackson)” was the last commissioned portrait of the singer before his death, and it shows him in regal mode, wearing armor and riding a horse.
Jackson dubbed the ‘King of Pop’, died at the age of 50 in 2009 after an overdose of prescribed medicines.
Image Credit: Reuters
