Michael Jackson Portrait Features In National Portrait Gallery
alan jones
Renowned pop culture artist Andy Warhol's 1984 portrait of MichaelJackson is on exhibition at
the American National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
The oil-on-silkscreen-on-canvas portrait first featured on the cover of 'Time' magazine's March
19,1984 issue and is a gift of Time magazine to the National Portrait Gallery.
The portrait is part of a special exhibition called 'A BRUSH WITHHISTORY: Paintings from the
National Portrait Gallery'. The portraits in this exhibition date from the 1720s to the1990s and
feature heroes, writers, statesmen, inventors, educators, musicians, artists, and scientists of
America's past. According to the Institution, these paintings comprise a who's who of American
history and culture while delving into the biographies of these great American lives.
Jackson's portrait joins the ranks of such luminaries of American history as Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Stearns (T. S.) Eliot, General George S. Patton, George Gershwin, among others.
According to the Institution, the choice of Warhol as Jackson'sportraitist for the cover of Time
was appropriate, given the artist'sfascination with heroes of popular culture.
In the next two years, the exhibition will tour several states in theU.S., Japan, and England as
follows:
January 27, 2001 through April 8, 2001North Carolina Museum of HistoryRaleigh, North Carolina,
U.S.AMay 4, 2001 through July 1, 2001Tennessee State MuseumNashville, Tennessee, U.S.AAugust 6,
2001 through October 14, 2001The National Museum of Western ArtTokyo, JapanNovember 16, 2001
through January 27, 2002Speed Art MuseumLouisville, Kentucky, U.S.AFebruary 22, 2002 through May
5, 2002 Montgomery Museum of Fine ArtsMontgomery, Alabama, U.S.AMay 31, 2002 through August 11,
2002New Orleans Museum of ArtNew Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.AOctober 4, 2002 through January 5,
2003National Portrait GalleryLondon, England
[ source: Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu/), http://www.mjifc.com ]