Album cover researchEMILY HOWLETT

Madonna album cover

About the album cover

The artist who created Madonna’s album cover in 2009 is known as Mr. Brainwash.

In both images Mr Brainwash has combined Jean Baptiste Mordino’s photo for the cover of Bazar Magazine back in 1990, with Madonna’s 1987 'Who’s That Girl' era portrait by Alberto Tolot, topped off with his characteristic colourful hand finishing.

The colourful album cover has been used on her album and the grey version can be found on I Tunes and used for her single version.

Marilyn Monroe

Andy Warhol – the famous Marilyn Monroe

When Marilyn Monroe died, Andy Warhol created over 20 silkscreen paintings of her. They were created from a publicity photo from the film Niagara.

Andy Warhol found two themes which represented his creations, these were death and the cult of celebrity. He realised that by repeating the image, he represents her mass presence in the media. The contrast of vivid colour with black and white, and the effect of fading in the right panel are suggestive of the star’s mortality. 

Influence

The similarity of the two images of Madonna and the repeated images of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe creations is uncanny.

Mr. Brainwash has taken Warhol’s idea and created his own version for the album cover of Madonna’s ‘Creation’. It seems that Brainwash had too realised the meaning of the Monroe creations and wanted to use this idea to represent Madonna.

You are now able to see repeated images of Madonna represented in a similar way as the Andy Warhol creation of Marilyn Monroe. This could be the influence of his work and is now representing Madonna’s mass presence in the media.