Andy Warhol was a legendary painter and artist who is known for his many types of art, who was lucky enough to cross paths with the great Michael Jackson. In 1984, some of that magic came to life on canvas.
In Andy’s diary he talks about his moments with the king of pop.
March 7, 1984: I finished the Michael Jackson cover. I didn’t like it but the office kids did. Then the Time people came down to see it, about forty of them. And they stood around saying that it should increase newsstand sales. . . . Then later the Time guy called me . . . and said they were going to use it. I think the yellow one. And I told him to cross his fingers that it wouldn’t get bumped on Saturday and he said he would. March 12, 1984: Time came out and the Jackson cover made it, it didn’t get bumped. And the article inside was crazy. It had them asking if he was going to get a sex-change operation and he said no. The cover should have had more blue. I gave them some in the style of the Fonda cover I did for Time once, but they wanted this style.
In August of 2009 the portrait went on auction at the Vered Gallery in East Hampton and was sold for more than $1 million. The famous portraits depict MJ in his red leather jacket from the “Thriller” video in which he went on to win eight Grammy’s for back in 1984.