Jeff Koons' World
By Ingrid Sischy
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
What Koons is saying sounds obvious, but it is also revelatory. Many people see the art world as a place of hucksters and shams. It can be that, but more often it is something
else—an environment where a journey, like the one that Koons has been on, can happen. "I love going to the studio everyday. I put on my sneakers and my jeans and I really have a perfect life, just going there and being able to do this activity," says Koons. His gratitude is evident, but it doesn`t mean that he is self-satisfied and complacent now that he is such a successful artist and now that the earlier tribulations have faded into the past. On the contrary. Perhaps the Hulk paintings and sculptures that he has been working on and thinking about lately explain it best: the Hulk is not exactly a retiring type, but a symbol of pure testosterone, a gesture of power. It brings out an important ingredient in Koons` work, one that hasn`t really been considered. "Within my work there is an underlying violence," he says. "It`s a violence of gesture and of wanting to expand. The violence isn`t directed against the viewer. It`s directed outward." As if to say c`mon everyone. Let`s fix this mess. And then let`s celebrate the end of all this madness with inflatable flowers, bunnies, Jim Beam trains, balloon dogs, tulips, party hats, and puppies. Welcome to Jeff Koons` world. It`s a nice place to visit.
—Excerpt from the essay by Ingrid Sischy
All images © Jeff Koons. Essay © 2006 Ingrid Sischy
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
What Koons is saying sounds obvious, but it is also revelatory. Many people see the art world as a place of hucksters and shams. It can be that, but more often it is something
else—an environment where a journey, like the one that Koons has been on, can happen. "I love going to the studio everyday. I put on my sneakers and my jeans and I really have a perfect life, just going there and being able to do this activity," says Koons. His gratitude is evident, but it doesn`t mean that he is self-satisfied and complacent now that he is such a successful artist and now that the earlier tribulations have faded into the past. On the contrary. Perhaps the Hulk paintings and sculptures that he has been working on and thinking about lately explain it best: the Hulk is not exactly a retiring type, but a symbol of pure testosterone, a gesture of power. It brings out an important ingredient in Koons` work, one that hasn`t really been considered. "Within my work there is an underlying violence," he says. "It`s a violence of gesture and of wanting to expand. The violence isn`t directed against the viewer. It`s directed outward." As if to say c`mon everyone. Let`s fix this mess. And then let`s celebrate the end of all this madness with inflatable flowers, bunnies, Jim Beam trains, balloon dogs, tulips, party hats, and puppies. Welcome to Jeff Koons` world. It`s a nice place to visit.
—Excerpt from the essay by Ingrid Sischy
All images © Jeff Koons. Essay © 2006 Ingrid Sischy
Page [1] [2] [3] [4]
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Jeff Koons
Hardcover + Box, 33 x 44 cm (13 x 17.3 in.), 606 pages
$ 4000.00
$ 4000.00
The Post-Pop superstar: An in-depth study of Jeff Koons's entire oeuvre to date. Limited to 1,500 copies, each numbered and signed by the artist.
Ushering in Banality, 1988, from the series Banality. Polychromed wood, 38 x 62 x 30 inches / 96,5 x 157,5 x 76,2 cm. Credit: Bernhard Schaub