The LA Weekly had an exclusive access to Michael Jackson’ hangar in Santa Monica Airport, that the king of pop used as his studio and art storehouse. I had no idea that such a thing existed nor that Jackson was into drawing and painting, but the pictures of the collection, currently owned by Jackson’s art mentor and friend Brett-Livingstone Strong and the Jackson estate, reveal a little more about his character.
The more striking piece is this replica of a monument that Strong and Jackson co-designed together, a megalomaniac kind-of-thing, built for fan-pilgrims wanting to,… errrrrr I don’t know,.. pray to Jackson’s glory when he is dead? No, rather get married at his feet according to Strong:
‘He wanted his fans to be able to get married at a monument that would have all of his music [in an archive, and playing on speakers], to inspire some of his fans.’
Jackson first wanted to build it in Las Vegas, and I agree, it would have been perfectly in its place in the capital of kitsch, but Strong said that Los Angeles might be the promise land for that thing,…oh nooooooo!
The rest of the collection is a series of drawings made with wax pencils, drawings of chairs, many chairs, especially thrones as he has always thought he was a king right? Drawings of keys and gates, and portraits of George Washington and Paul McCartney apparently (Too bad they don’t show Mc Cartney’s portrait). There is also one portrait of his chimpanzee Bubble transformed in an armchair, and a lot of 7s, as Michael was the 7th child of the family.
According to Strong, he and Jackson formed a business partnership in 1989, the Jackson-Strong alliance, giving to each of them a 50% stake in the art produced. Strong said he wanted to help Jackson manage and exhibit his art, and he also did a portrait of Jackson, entitled ‘The Book’, which was sold for $2 million to a Japanese businessman in 1990.
Strong also revealed Jackson’s art was going to be exhibited 18 years ago, but since it was in the middle of the pedophilia scandal, the art was never shown.
The art has been valued at the unbelievable sum of $900 million by Eric Finzi, of Belgo Fine Art Appraisers, but there was a condition as Strong explained:
‘The reason somebody came out with that was because there was an appraisal on if all of his originals were reproduced — he wanted to do limited editions of 777 — and he would sell them to his fan base in order to build his monument, support kids and do other things. You multiply that by 150 originals, and if they sold for a few thousand dollars each, then you would end up with 900 million dollars.’
Strong estimates there are about 150-160 pieces, and he is claiming that he is working with everybody (the estate I suppose) to exhibit Jackson’s art as much as possible, and an exhibit is tentatively planned for L.A.'s City Hall. I can't wait.