In the latter stages of his life Michael Jackson’s struggle with self-image was well documented. Becoming reclusive amongst vicious accusations and a bottomless stream of rumours, there’s still a lot we still don’t know about the life and times of the King of Pop.
An aspect of his life that’s recently come to light is his bordering on obsessive love of portrait art. Commissioning several artists over a period of more than 25 years, Jackson was bringing his fairytale fantasies to life through an astounding number of oil paintings and murals.
For a large portion of his life, Michael Jackson commissioned dozens of artists to produce absurd portraits, statues and murals of the King of Pop.
Months before his death, an exhibit of 1,390 personal items from Neverland Ranch were exhibited in Beverly Hills, providing unprecedented access to the mysterious and secretive property Jackson called home.
Among the items were iconic memorabilia such as Jackson’s famous white-jewelled glove, a statue of himself as Batman, and these paintings.
Jackson would hire one artist at a time as his personal portrait painter, the most prolific being David Nordahl. He would often pay more than $150,000 for larger artworks.
See more of the surreal pieces below:
Via Dangerous Minds.
