Michael Jackson Tribute

I am wondering if anyone else out there collected these Topps Michael Jackson cards back in the 1980s?

Not only did they come with collectible cards, as you can see, they also contained a stick of very stale gum and some really awesome stickers (i.e., the stickers that have the lilac border around the photo) that are basically just stills from Michael Jackson music videos:

 Those other two shown above I collected separately and are from the Jacksons' Victory Tour. I think they represent Randy and Tito, respectively.

The Topps assortment formed the core of my collection of MJ-inspired stickers.Where in the world did I get the other ones? I can only guess from a gumball machine outside the grocery store.

Cocodack

I received some puffy rooster stickers for Christmas. I quite like them:

I do not have a lot of rooster stickers.

Nor do I have any other stickers of Korean origin. The package explains:

Funny sticker world! I want to go to there!

Wait, are those eggs? Maybe some of them are supposed to be hens--which would explain the beaded chokers they are wearing. I guess hens can also have combs.

If anyone can decipher the guide on the back, I'd love to know.



Stickers as art, art as stickers

Among the most awesome gifts I received this Christmas were a set of Shepard Fairey stickers. Growing up in New England in the 1990s, I remember seeing "Andre the Giant has a Posse" stickers on nearly every toll booth along I-95 and on random street signs. So it was a treat to see Fairey's work recognized in a major museum exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 2009, an event made even more exciting by the controversy over copyright issues for Fairey's Obama Hope image and the artist's own arrest. 

I am pretty sure these stickers are meant to be applied to further toll booths and street signs. I've reserved a couple of extras for that purpose, but I'm pretty law-abiding and am going to hold on to most of them.

Fairey's artwork is meant to be on stickers, which is why these are so great. But I have a small collection of other art stickers that I've collected over the years. These have all been issued by museums, which -- speaking of copyright -- to my knowledge all hold the copyright for the images in question.

From my own institution, the Museum of Fine Arts, these packages of American art stickers:

The following are from the 1990s. They came in a box on rolls and highlight the tremendous collection of Impressionist paintings:

 My favorite is the Caillebotte:

Other museums have issued stickers, such as the French national museums:

Details of water lilies

Unicorn tapestries (Musee de Cluny, Paris)

 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, came out with these for their traveling exhibition of the quilts of Gee's Bend:

 The Barnes Foundation issued stickers of their highlights. Where else could you possibly get a Chaim Soutine sticker?

I like that they've included the accession number and gallery location.

My favorite art stickers, though, are the ones I got at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Mass. A sampling:

Wait for it...

These are all on transparent paper so that the colors of the collage shine through. Love them!

Happy New Year!

A little late.