During the February First-Friday Art Walk at the Sunset Center, I came across a painting by an unnamed artist. Though I did not know who had made the work, I knew exactly what the work depicted. It was gripping. At first, it seemed merely to be a distorted portrait of Michael Jackson. After observing it for a minute or so, I found that the visible distortion of the portrait was caused by the overlapping of another image: Peter Pan. Only later did I discover that the painting, (Michael) Pan, was the work of local artist Jon Revett.
Immediately when I saw Revett’s painting, I grasped a deep understanding of its significance because I knew necessary information about Michael Jackson. One of the most basic facts about the King of Pop is that his whimsical home is named “Neverland Ranch” after the fantasy island of Peter Pan. Psychologists have also claimed that Jackson’s intentions behind his infamous cosmetic surgeries might be linked to his absent childhood, as he began his music career with the Jackson 5 while he was still a young child. Jackson’s surgically upturned nose and pasty white skin are surprisingly similar to Disney’s interpretation of Peter Pan, a boy who never grows up. This is the content that originally caught my eye. I then gave my attention to the formal principles of design Revett used to convey this story with gripping seriousness rather than mockery.
Overall, the artist’s employment of design principles succeeds in unifying the composition. The use of line in this piece works on many different levels. The lines break up the space to distort Jackson’s face into an almost cubistic style. This, in turn, creates various shapes throughout the canvas, producing a jigsaw-puzzle quality. At a quick glance, I saw the Michael Jackson face with no mistake. However, when I viewed it with more intent, this frontally oriented face becomes increasingly harder to find, as it dissolves into the Peter Pan face painted in a three-quarter view. For me, it took twice as long to discover the cartoon figure interacting with that of the Pop music icon. These overlapping portraits fight against one another in a somewhat distracting but also mesmerizing manner. While Peter Pan’s bright orange hair leaps to the forefront of the viewer’s sight, Jackson’s bright red lips follow right behind. This dual push and pull for attention from the viewer, which might normally be seen as unintentional or negative, works well in this particular piece because that tension encompasses the meaning and message. Another formal tension arises between the realistic image of the human face of Jackson and the cartoonish hand-drawn head of Peter Pan. While Peter’s rendering is more linear and flat, Jackson’s face is painted in a more tonal and three-dimensional portrait style. The artist did, however, cleverly unify this dichotomy by painting with an overall texture that connects the two iconic images.
The color of this work is vivid, using deep reds, vibrant yellows, and a stark black. Striking highlights also give the piece dramatic contrast; against the bold black marks, the pale skin tones jump out at the viewer, while the red lips seem to glisten with their white sheen. This broad scale of tonal values, along with the physical scale of the work itself, seems to scream out at the viewer. The way the paint was applied is intentionally messy and expressive. The almost angry sweeping motion of the brush strokes, combined with the bruises of shadows that dance across the canvas, powerfully contradict both the serene expression on Jackson’s face and Peter Pan’s innocent grin. The applied paint intentionally lacks smooth transition or blending. This gives the work a texture so animated and loud that I had the urge to run my palm across it. Michael Jackson’s artificially enhanced porcelain skin is now rugged and tough, as if the artist wanted to reveal the surgical scarring on Jackson’s face. Revett’s painting presents a collection of contradictions, yet its formal choices work together to merge this complex content into a coherent whole. The audience’s natural reaction is going to be an emotional one, an element that the artist utilizes to his advantage. Especially in light of the recent tragedy of Michael Jackson’s death, the loud and vibrant colors flowing so gracefully across the canvas, juxtaposed with the rough texture and almost violent brushstrokes, communicate a bittersweet surprise. It is both hard to look at and hard to look away from.
This painting exhibits a deep understanding of the principles of design in its composition. Revett employs line, shape, color, and texture to reach out to and engage his audience. His content is challenging and unconventional, but also rewarding for the viewer. This oversized portrait of the King of Pop and his eternally youthful counterpart is surely not one to miss.
