2011: “Are you ready for the next art star? Even if it happens to be Lindsay Lohan?,” asks T magazine in advance of a video, by painter Richard Phillips, of the beleaguered actress, to play at the Venice Biennale. Mr. Phillips, to T: “She’s a combination of the fantastic and the real, which is what makes her so magnetic. She can also bring forward an existential presence that speaks to the isolated self.”
2009: Francesco Vezzoli convinces Roman Polanski to direct Michelle Williams and Natalie Portman in an advertisement for the fictitious perfume “Greed,” which plays at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome. Mr. Vezzoli: “I think my work is very political, because it deals with the perception of celebrity culture, which is something that we’re all involved with.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjpFLBbOpxg
2007: W publishes a portfolio of Richard Prince work on its “Art Issue” cover; the photographs depict popular celebrities with Prince-esque statements scrawled across them as autographs (“What me worry? -Lindsay Lohan.”)
2004: Banksy produces a series of British banknotes replacing Queen Elizabeth II’s image with Princess Diana’s. Bloomberg News, 2007: the notes “tripled their top estimate at a Bonhams sale in London yesterday, as demand continued for works by the graffiti artist.”
2004: Robert Wilson accepts a commission from U.S. television corporation Voom HD to produce “video portraits” of celebrities including Dita von Teese, Alan Cumming, and Brad Pitt. The portrait of an underwear-clad Mr. Pitt ends up on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2006 (shortly before the release of a documentary on Mr. Wilson), and Mr. Pitt is reportedly displeased at the use of his image.
1988: Michael Jackson and Bubbles sculpted by Jeff Koons. Broad Art Foundation catalog: “Here [Koons has] made an intentionally provocative monument to America’s hang-ups about class, race, gender and sexuality.”
1987: Andy Warhol dies.
ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_
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