Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons
born 1955
American sculptor, painter, and multimedia artist. He trained at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore (BA 1976), and worked as a Wall Street commodities broker before embarking upon his career as an artist. In the 1980s he won international recognition as a radical exponent of NEO-GEO, an American movement concerned with appropriation and parody. Following the example of Pop artists of the 1960s, Koons used his work to reflect the commercial systems of the modern world. He also referred back to the Duchampian tradition, appropriating an art status to selected products (see APPROPRIATION ART). His vacuum cleaners encased in Perspex (1980–81; see 1993 exh. cat., pls 5–9) were classified as monuments to sterility. His immaculate replicas of domestic products, advertisements, kitsch toys, and models exercised an enthusiastic endorsement of unlimited consumption, unlike the veiled criticism of some work of the first generation of Pop artists. Koons perceived Western civilization as a driven society, flattered by narcissistic images and with a voracious appetite for glamorous commodities. In his expressions of the ecstatic and the banal he did not hesitate to breach the borderlines of taste; in the body of work titled Made in Heaven (1989–91; see 1993 exh. cat., pls 48–65) he featured explicit sexual photographs and models of himself with his then wife Ilona Staller (‘La Cicciolina’). Such works were naturally highly controversial.
For his ongoing Celebration series, begun in the 1990s, Koons created monumental sculptures and paintings to commemorate special occasions, such as the 1.5 ton Hanging Heart (1991–2006, priv. col.); a giant, shiny Christmas tree ornament. The simplicity of his forms and the commercialism they represent belie the technical complexities of producing objects that are flawless and often mirror-finished. The reflective qualities of the sculptures are meant to transfer from artwork to viewer, so that the object reflects the image of the viewer while the viewer reflects on the work of art and the reflections. Often the viewer’s first response to Koons’s sculptures, such as his Popeye series begun in 2002, is to see the works as ready-mades, which they are not. Although works like Caterpillar Ladder (2003, priv. col.) are based on inflatable toys and ready-made objects, they were constructed in his studio from aluminium and other materials made to look like plastic. The deception continues as one realizes the multivalence of innocent-looking objects, which explore ideas such as sex and banality. He often created installations in which painted compositions and sculptures were juxtaposed. His studio employed a large crew to assist in production of his monumental, complex works. [Margaret Barlow. "Koons, Jeff." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 9, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T047348.]
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