Lady Gaga is immortalized by one of her favorite artists on the newly unveiled cover for her upcoming album, "ARTPOP."
In her first "ARTPOP" single, "Applause," Gaga sings, "One second I'm a Koons fan, then suddenly the Koons is me." That statement came true when she revealed the cover for "ARTPOP" on October 7, which was designed by famous pop artist Jeff Koons.
The cover features a statue of the Mother Monster created by Koons, thereby immortalizing her in his art. Koons scholar Lynne Warren told MTV News that Koons and Gaga's team-up proves that the pop singer is not just a "flash in the pan."
"Jeff is very - he just has this sort of laser sense about popular culture," Warren said.
Warren said that unlike Andy Warhol, who tended to depict people who enjoyed a brief "15 minutes of fame," Koons is more discerning about who he chooses to eternalize in his art. For example, Koons created a statue of Michael Jackson in the late 1980s.
"Jeff seems to have really good senses to choose people who are not only at the height of their careers, but are going to be iconic," Warren said. "They won't be remembered just because he made art out of them, they will be remembered on for their own contributions. He must feel like Lady Gaga is not going to be a flash in the pan."
Gaga revealed the album cover on her website and on billboards around the world yesterday. The cover depicts the Koons creation-- a nude statue of the singer with its legs open and a shiny blue ball between them--with the words "ARTPOP" written across the blue ball. Her statue is surrounded by a deconstructed image of Botticelli's classic piece, "The Birth of Venus." The statue will make its in-person debut on November 10 at the album release party for "ARTPOP."
Warren, who curated a major Koons exhibition in Chicago, said that the cover is reminiscent of Koons' earlier work. "The pose that she's in is a piece we know very well here in Chicago -- the woman in the bathtub, which we displayed a number of times and on the cover of the catalog that Jeff designed for us," Warren said, referring to Koons' 1988 piece. She also said that the cover is influenced by his 1988 sculpture "Pink Panther."
"The convergence of those images and sculptures that he did a long time ago with the ethos of Lady Gaga and what she sort of represents and how she portrays herself with these costumes and different visual means to convey her songs is very interesting," Warren said.
"I would think that it will become iconic. Lady Gaga is pretty iconic on her own and so is Jeff, so bringing those two together... I would think so."
"ARTPOP" hits stores on November 11.