Sign in or 
Share this
Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania. As a teenager he revered Salvador Dalì, to the extent of visiting him in the Plaza Hotel. Koons attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Maryland Institute College of Art. He studied painting.
After college he worked as a Wall Street commodities broker, whilst establishing himself as an artist.
He gained recognition in the 1980s.
Koons' early work was in the form of conceptual sculpture, one of the best-known being Two Ball 50/50 Tank, 1985, consisting of two basket balls floating in water, which half-fills a glass tank. (The influence on Damien Hirst.)
In 1991 he married Hungarian-born naturalized-italian porn star La Cicciolina (Ilona Staler), who for 5years pursued an alternate career as a member of the Italian parliament. His "Made in Heaven" series of paintings, photos, sculptures portrayed the the couple in explicit sexual positions, created even more controversy than before.
They divorced after son was born. They agreed joint custody but Staller absconded from New York to Rome with the child.
In 1999 he commissioned a song about himself, on Momus's album Stars Forever.
In 2001 he concentrated on painting in a series "Easyfun--Ethereal"
In 2005 he was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Koons' work is classified as Neo-Pop or Post-Pop, as part of an 80s movement in reaction to the pared-down art of Minimalism and Conceptualism in the previous decade. Although the use of commercial imagery's a starting point, some also see the incorporation of some of the Conceptual approach which implies an irony. Koons says: "A viewer might at first see irony in my work... but I see none at all. Irony causes too much critical contemplation," (which in turn might well be perceived as an ironic double bluff). He is controvesial with his unashamed kitsch in the high art arena, exploiting throwaway subjects.
His work Balloon Dog (1994-2000) is based on balloons twisted into shape to make a toy dog. Koon's sculpture differs in two major respects to the original. It's made of metal (painted bright red to give the appearence of baloons) and it's more than ten feet tall.
Even a cursory study of history shows that contemporary institutional acceptance (his work has been exhibited in London's Royal Academy) is no reliable guide to the judgement of posterity. What can be said is that at the moment Koons attracts extremes of enthusiasm and vitriol. Now his work is amongst the most expensive in the world.
"Jeff Koons is a vivid representative of the end of 20-th Century. He speaks for those or make fun of those, who support him. His appearance was very relevant," said NeoPopRealist artist Nadia Russ.
References:
www.jeffkoons.com
Category:
Artists
Art Movements
After college he worked as a Wall Street commodities broker, whilst establishing himself as an artist.
He gained recognition in the 1980s.
Koons' early work was in the form of conceptual sculpture, one of the best-known being Two Ball 50/50 Tank, 1985, consisting of two basket balls floating in water, which half-fills a glass tank. (The influence on Damien Hirst.)
In 1991 he married Hungarian-born naturalized-italian porn star La Cicciolina (Ilona Staler), who for 5years pursued an alternate career as a member of the Italian parliament. His "Made in Heaven" series of paintings, photos, sculptures portrayed the the couple in explicit sexual positions, created even more controversy than before.
They divorced after son was born. They agreed joint custody but Staller absconded from New York to Rome with the child.
In 2001 he concentrated on painting in a series "Easyfun--Ethereal"
Koons' work is classified as Neo-Pop or Post-Pop, as part of an 80s movement in reaction to the pared-down art of Minimalism and Conceptualism in the previous decade. Although the use of commercial imagery's a starting point, some also see the incorporation of some of the Conceptual approach which implies an irony. Koons says: "A viewer might at first see irony in my work... but I see none at all. Irony causes too much critical contemplation," (which in turn might well be perceived as an ironic double bluff). He is controvesial with his unashamed kitsch in the high art arena, exploiting throwaway subjects.
His work Balloon Dog (1994-2000) is based on balloons twisted into shape to make a toy dog. Koon's sculpture differs in two major respects to the original. It's made of metal (painted bright red to give the appearence of baloons) and it's more than ten feet tall.
Mark Stevens of The New Republic dismissed him as a "decadent artist [who] lacks the imaginative will to do more than trivialize and italicise his themes and the tradition in which he works... He is another of those who serve the tacky rich." Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times saw "one last, pathetic gasp of the sort of self-promoting hype and sensationalism that characterized the worst of the 1980s" and threw in for good measure "artificial," "cheap" and "unabashedly cynical".
Whether Koons'll be seen in time as a critical commentator in the tradition of the Dadaists and a genuine leader in the controversial tradition of the avant-garde, or merely as a fashionable purveyor of banality, remains to be seen. This judgement can't be made in isolation from the evaluation of the wider contemporary art scene. He has had an undoubted influence on noted younger artists: his extreme enlargement of mundane objects has been copied by Damien Hirst and Mona Hatoum amongst others.Even a cursory study of history shows that contemporary institutional acceptance (his work has been exhibited in London's Royal Academy) is no reliable guide to the judgement of posterity. What can be said is that at the moment Koons attracts extremes of enthusiasm and vitriol. Now his work is amongst the most expensive in the world.
"Jeff Koons is a vivid representative of the end of 20-th Century. He speaks for those or make fun of those, who support him. His appearance was very relevant," said NeoPopRealist artist Nadia Russ.
References:
www.jeffkoons.com
Category:
Artists
Art Movements
paints |
Latest page update: made by paints
, Jan 30 2008, 11:31 PM EST
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by paints
1 image deleted view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
None
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
