Search results for ""author jeff koons""

Hailed by Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker as “the most original, controversial, and expensive American artist of the past three and a half decades,” Jeff Koons has come to reign as a master of the market, a wry puppeteer with a “formidable aesthetic intelligence.” His elaborate, exquisitely produced sculptures draw from a contemporary lexicon of consumerism — often featuring large-scale reproductions of toys, household items, or luxury goods — while simultaneously holding up a mirror to the very culture from which they are extracted. These references to popular media are evidenced not merely in his choice of subject matter but also in his visual techniques: his sculptures frequently comprise smooth, mirrored surfaces, and his paintings employ bright and saturated colors. Jeff Koons: Gazing Ball — the first catalogue on the artist’s work to be published by David Zwirner — was produced on the occasion of the major 2013 exhibition at the gallery in New York, which marked the world debut of his Gazing Ball series, a brand new body of work that occupies an important place in the trajectory of his practice. Conceptually derived from the mirrored ornaments encountered on many suburban lawns, including those of Koons’s childhood hometown in rural Pennsylvania, every sculpture is anchored by a blue “gazing ball” of hand-blown glass. These are situated atop large, white-plaster sculptures that have been alternately modeled after iconic works from the Greco-Roman era, including the Farnese Hercules and the Esquiline Venus, or after such quotidian objects from the contemporary residential landscape as a rustic mailbox, a birdbath, and an inflatable garden snowman. Created in close collaboration with Koons, this elegant publication echoes the classic design of a 1970 Picasso catalogue that the artist admires. Inside, vivid color plates of the sculptures in situ capture the stark contrast between the pristine whiteness of the plaster and the highly reflective spheres. In their perfect contours and smooth, glistening surfaces, the gazing balls implicate audience as well as context — mirroring both and offering playful yet powerful meditations on the dialogue between gaze and reflection. “While all of the sculptures are grounded in their own distinct narratives, derived from Art History and suburban towns,” writes Francesco Bonami in his catalogue essay, “the seemingly fragile and delicate gazing ball establishes that sense of uncertain equilibrium that exists between history and fantasy, magic and materiality, mass culture and exclusive beauty.”

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Jeff Koons (born 1955) became prominent in the mid 1980s by targeting the meaning of art and spectacle in a media-saturated era. Since his first solo exhibition which consisted of small-scale assemblages of toys and found objects, his later works evolved into the now iconic monumental pieces which can be found permanently installed at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. His methodical inquiry into the ways in which everyday items become works of art by reflecting our desires draws attention to the continuity of images as they pass through time, combining art historical references with colloquial imagery.This monograph, part of the 2000 Words series published by DESTE, features an essay by Massimiliano Gioni and Natalie Bell, which examines Koons' parallels to Duchamp and the function of readymades over the course of his career. Koons has created a prophecy fueled by the ecstasy of materialism, where the image or object becomes its own ouroboros consuming itself.

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Marking an important moment in the Art Institute of Chicago’s 136-year history, this book documents an exceptional gift to the museum: the Edlis/Neeson Collection, consisting of 44 stellar works of contemporary art. Among the highlights are major paintings by some of the 20th century’s best-known artists, including Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol. Also included in the gift are paintings, photographs, and sculptures by icons of contemporary art such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Cindy Sherman. This catalogue places the Edlis/Neeson Collection in direct dialogue with works already in the Art Institute’s holdings. An essay by James Rondeau situates the gift in the context of the museum’s history and uses it to illustrate the growth and development of Pop Art. Most importantly, this book celebrates a transformative gift that allows the Art Institute to claim the most important collection of modern and contemporary art in any encyclopedic institution in the world.Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

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The art of Jeff Koons imagined anew, alongside more than 200 works from the acclaimed Pinault collection This new volume brings together the work of one of the most iconic living artists with over 200 pieces from the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean in Marseille, France. Although his art encompasses a wide range of satirical sculptural work as well as digital collages and paintings, American sculptor Jeff Koons (born 1955) is best known for his unmistakable large-scale recreations of familiar objects in stainless steel. These famous mirror-finish works and other pieces from his oeuvre are placed in conversation with a series of selections from the Mucem archives, the result of a meticulous curatorial effort by the artist himself. The publication takes advantage of the richness of the Mucem’s collections, with everyday objects, traditional art, documents and photographs, encouraging readers to compare and contrast the artworks on levels both formal and symbolic.

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