Madonna, “Celebration”
Madonna, Celebration (2009)
Warner Bros. Records
Artist: Mr. Brainwash
Madonna released her third greatest hits album to mark her 30th anniversary in the music industry and her final release with Warner Bros. Records. She teamed up with controversial street artist, Mr. Brainwash, for the artwork to accompany the collection.
There are two versions of the release: the single disc and double-disc, both of which feature different artwork. Both feature an image of Madonna, from the cover of Jean Baptiste Mordino’s Bazar Magazine covershoot, with the hair being from Madonna’s Who’s That Girl era. The image is in full color on the double-disc release, with the hair being bright yellow and lips in red. The background of this version contains newspaper-like text featuring lyrics to some of her biggest tracks. The single-disc release, however, features a black image of Madonna with a collage of her single artwork covers instead of her lyrics.
The interior artwork uses elements of pop art and street art, using paint blobs and images from Madonna’s archive. Both editions of the album include a pull out poster.
Mr. Brainwash has used Madonna as a subject in the past. Madonna, including many other celebrities, were featured in a series where the celebrities’ face is seen with Marilyn Monroe’s hair. He also created a work based on the infamous kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV Awards. He’s known for combining modern cultural icons with pop art and graffiti elements, in sometimes satirical ways. He has come under scrutiny for the validity of his work over the years. His turn from graffiti to pop-art-en-masse has raised eyebrows in the street art community.
