Page 41 - Classics Issue

Michael Moebius art celebrates forbidden pleasures.Michaels’s work can be seen at the Maddox gallery in Mayfair with his bubble gum portraits depicting pop culture in a literal form.Most famously Moebius adds new dimension to American flm starlets Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn with brightly coloured gum bubbles added to monochrome portraits. Another bubble gum portrait reimagines Queen Elizabeth, UK royalty and global icon. But whats most interesting is the contrast between the artist’s upbringing in a communist Eastern Bloc state and his love of pop culture, western icons and contemporary art.Michael Moebius was born in 1968, at a time when Germany was still divided in two by the Berlin wall. Living in an Eastern Bloc state during the cold war period, he was shaped by the country.s political situation.East Germany”s culture was strongly infuenced by communist ideals, many of which were defned in opposition to western values. The US was seen as a particularly big threat, and this included US popular culture, capitalism and consumerism.