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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 28 June 2018
Exhibition explores Michael Jackson as artists’ inspiration

By JILL LAWLESS art for the “Dangerous”
Associated Press album. Isaac Lythgoe has
LONDON (AP) — A new art turned that image of Jack-
exhibition in London de- son’s masked eyes into a
picts Michael Jackson as plush headboard.
a savior, a saint, an enter- Other images are heroic.
tainer, an icon, a monarch, German artist Isa Genzken
a mask and a mystery. juxtaposes Jackson and Mi-
The National Portrait Gal- chelangelo’s David. Wiley
lery show, opening Thurs- — who has also painted
day, reveals the extent to Barack Obama’s official
which contemporary art- portrait — depicts Jackson
ists have been drawn to in armor on horseback, in
the late King of Pop, as an a painting modeled on Pe-
artistic inspiration, a tragic ter Paul Rubens’ portrait of
figure and a fascinating King Philip II of Spain. The
enigma. portrait was the last one
Gathering work by 48 art- Jackson commissioned,
ists from around the world, and was completed after
the show includes Jackson- his death.
inspired paintings, photo- One work, filling a whole
graphs, videos, textiles and A woman looks at artworks by Todd Gray on display at the Michael Jackson: On The Wall exhibition room, focuses not on Jack-
ceramics. It ranges from at the National Portrait Gallery in London, Wednesday, June 27, 2018. son but on his fans. South
1980s pop-art portraits by Associated Press African artist Candice
Andy Warhol and Keith “Thriller,” one of the best- U.S. artist Todd Gray, who from Ghana, where the art- Breitz filmed 16 German-
Haring to David LaCha- selling albums of all time. worked for Jackson as a ist has a home. speaking Jackson fans of
pelle’s depictions of a His music, moves, style and photographer in the 1970s “It’s my way to place Mi- myriad ages and races,
Christ-like Jackson and Ke- innovations in staging and and 80s, recalled him as chael in the African dias- singing “Thriller.” It’s an en-
hinde Wiley’s vast portrait video had a huge impact a sweet-natured youth — pora,” he said. gaging and moving work
of the entertainer as a king on popular culture. He also “If he stepped on an ant, The show has the support that shows just how much
on horseback. struggled with the limelight, he would cry” — but also of Jackson’s family, though Jackson means to those
Curator Nicholas Cullinan and died in 2009 of a pre- someone keenly aware of not all the works are flatter- who love his music.
said Wednesday that, scription drug overdose at his image. He remembered ing. American artist Jordan Scottish artist Donald Urqu-
nine years after Jackson’s age 50. Jackson refusing to change Wolfson shows nothing but hart, who created an il-
death, the show explores The exhibition includes his mismatched socks for a Jackson’s darting, blinking lustrated Michael Jackson
“how he could mean so works that reflect on what photo shoot, saying: “’Peo- eyes, taken from a 1993 TV alphabet for the exhibition,
many different things to so Jackson meant to his fans, ple will talk. That’s what I interview in which the star thinks Jackson’s “manipu-
many people.” his place in African-Amer- want.” denied child molestation lation of fame” has inspired
Jackson had already been ican culture, the way he Gray has reworked his old allegations. many artists. But he says
a child star when he be- manipulated fame — and photos by layering other Several works depict Jack- Jackson will be most widely
came an international icon the way fame manipulated pictures over Jackson’s son in a mask, most fa- remembered for his bound-
in 1983 with the release of him. face, including images mously Mark Ryden’s cover ary-crossing music.q

Robert Dugoni’s ‘A Steep Price’ has beautiful narrative

By JEFF AYERS pregnant and hasn’t told arrest? Fazzio.
Associated Press anyone. When Crosswhite Author Robert Dugoni has
“A Steep Price” (Thomas & learns that one of her fel- multiple stories that weave
Mercer), by Robert Dugoni low officers has moved into a beautiful narrative.
Two young women who to another group, and a What makes “A Steep
have been friends forever new detective arrives and Price” stand out is the au-
have plans to go to gradu- promptly sets up shop at thentic feel of how it feels
ate school together. When her desk, Crosswhite fears to work as a police officer in
one of them comes back that she’s on the way out. a major city. With relevant
from a visit to London to at- Is it her pregnancy or some- and timely issues, including
tend a relative’s wedding, thing she did? She starts to the treatment of women
she announces that she’s get paranoid about all the in the workplace and how
gotten married. It’s part possibilities. some cultures believe in
of an arranged marriage One of her fellow officers the practice of arranged
set up by her parents. Her faces problems of his own. marriage, the result is an-
friend becomes upset and What seems like a simple other outstanding novel
promptly disappears. Se- case involving the murder from one of the best crime
attle Detective Tracy Cross- of a community activist writers in the business.q
white takes the case when puts detective Vic Fazzio in
a colleague thinks there’s the middle of a war zone,
more to the story. and a son is bent on re-
While Crosswhite works on venge for what he feels This cover image released by
Thomas and Mercer shows
the case, she also contem- was the poor treatment of “A Steep Price,” by Robert
plates her future with the his criminal father. The de- Dugoni.
police department. She’s tective responsible for his Associated Press