In the 1960's English painter, David Hockney fell right into Pop-Art. His work that initially took off was not his paintings, but photographs. While other artists used fish-eye lenses and similar tricks to take pictures of an entire room (in order to paint it), Hockney disagreed with this practice, as the image that resulted was warped. Trying for a more realistic view, he began taking multiple polaroids of a single space.

He realized that what resulted was a piece of art in itself, a patchwork narrative of the subject, another dimension to photography. He called the pieces the joiners.

In the early 60's while still in art-school Hockney had a rash of luck in meeting Andy Warhol and getting introduced to the entire pop-art crowd. He was able to sell some work and live for a year in America. But it was not New York that Hockney had set his sights on, California would be it.

On our recent trip to Greece, my husband and I saw them everywhere: taped to the dashboards of buses, crammed one above the other in tiny cave chapels, centered in the omnipresent roadside shrines, propped up besides cash registers in bakeries, lining the walls of gift shops, and – of course—in places of adoration in Greek Orthodox churches. Highly symbolized icons, images of Christ and the saints, seemed to be everywhere.

The painted icons generally showed several figures (sometimes a scene, but more often just one or two individuals) sitting, with a solid background of metal or gold leaf, for the viewer to reflect upon. The Virgin Mary and her son Jesus were the most common subjects, shown in several repeated poses: Christos Pantokrator (“Christ Almighty”, grasping the New Testament in his left hand and holding his right hand up in blessing) and Maria Glykophilousa (“Mary of Loving Kindness”, holding her young son and gently touching her cheek to his), just to name two. The poses that go with each name are very specific, and the title always matches the way the figures are standing and what they are holding.

The King of Pop Art’s portrait of the King of Pop went under the hammer on August 18, 2009 at an auction hosted by the Vered Gallery in the Hamptons. The owner of the gallery, Janet Lehr, who purchased the 30-by-26-inch Andy Warhol painting for $300,000, only months before Michael Jackson’s death, would not be drawn on the final sum paid by the anonymous buyer. One report, however, stated that it was in excess of $1million.

Prior to the sale, Warhol’s (Green) Michael Jackson portrait had been on tour. Shown at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel and Gallery 825 in West Hollywood, the painting was also displayed at the O2 Arena in London as part of the British Music Experience exhibition. The 02 Arena is the venue where Jackson had been due to perform a number of comeback concerts only days before his untimely death on June 25, 2009.