Jeff Koons

A la búsqueda de sentido
Pol Capdevila
Guggenheim, Bilbao 2015
Serie Inflatables
Inflatable Flower and Bunny, 1979
Plastic, mirrors, 24x 32 x 12 ins
With my early work, I was always making an effort to remove the
sexuality. Like with my first inflatables -say, the rabbit and the flower
[Inflatable Flower and Bunny, 1979] I felt that I just wanted to keep
removing my own sexuality, this more subjective aspect of my work.
That’s where I got pulled to things like vacuum cleaners and
basketballs, these kind of ready-made objects. But sexuality is such a
tool, and I try to use it in an objective way. A communal sexuality, not
just mine. (Easyfun-Ethereal, 2000)
Whitney Museum, N. Y. 2014
“I think of the inflatables as anthropomorphic, we are ourselves
inflatables, we take a breath, we expand, we contract, our last
breath in life, our deflation.” (Whitney, texto de exposición)
I love Minimalism. I remember going to Leo Castelli’s gallery and Ileana
Sonnabend’s gallery and seeing beautifoul exhibitions by Robert
Morris and Donald Judd. I loved Robert Simthson’s work. I was making
reference to Smithson in “The New” series and also previously in the
“Inflatables”. But I think there’s a sense of family structure in those
pieces, too. There’s a sense of community. There’s order, there’s a
heightened sense of the state of being. I always enjoyed Kierkegaard
and Sartre (Regarding Andy Warhol, catalálogo, Novembre 2011, p.
193)
Robert Morris Untitled (Mirror Cubes, 1965)
Serie Pre-New
Teapot 1979

What was important in this work is that

it liberated me from my own subjective
sexuality. I was taking my work into the
realm of the objective. I was distancing
myself from my own sexuality.
(Handbook)
 Foto:
Versailles,
2008

The New
New Hoover Convertibles Green, Green, Red, New Hoover Deluxe
Shampoo Polishers, New Shelton Wet/Dry 5 Gallon Displaced
Tripledecker, 1981-86
In the body of work I called ‘The New’, I was interested in a
psychological state tied to newness and immortality: the gestalt came
directly from viewing an inanimate object -a vacuum cleaner- that was
in a position to be immortal (Koons, Handbook, pg. 18)
I have always used cleanliness and a form of
order to maintain for the viewer a belief in the
essence of the eternal, so that the viewer does
not feel threatened economically. When under
economic pressure you start to see
disintegration around you. Things do not remain
orderly. So I have always placed order in my
work not out of a respect for minimalism, but to
give the viewer a sense of economic security
(Handbook, p. 50)
 Equilibrium
One Ball Total
Equilibrium Tank, 1985

Where I see art going, its exchange value, its

economic substructure, will be removed: it will
function solely as a means of support and
security. From this point of view, my work has
strong biological implications: the encasement
of the vacuum cleaners with the ideas of
removal and protection, and the equilibrium
tanks with water suspending basketballs - these
are all very womblike.
 Equilibrium
Moses 1985

I want to have an impact in people’s

lives. I want to communicate to as
wide a mass as possible. And the way
to communicate with the public right
now is through TV and advertising.
The art world is not effective right
now.
 Luxury and Degradation
Fisherman Golfer, 1986

it was a panoramic view of society. On

one end, I had Bob Hope, and on the
other end, I had Louir XIV. But I was
really trying to show the history of art
since the French Revolution. Also it was
saying that if you put art in the hands of
the masses -which bob Hope was a
symbol of- it’ll become reflective of
mass ego and eventually just become
decorative. On the other end of the
panoramic view, if you put art in the
hands of a monarch, it’ll reflect the
monarch’s ego and also eventually just
become decorative. (Easyfun-Ethereal,
2000)
 Statuary, 1986
Louis XIV

In ‘Luxury and Degradation’

the objects are given an
artificial luxury, an artificial
value, which transforms
them completely, changing
their function, and, to a
certain extent, decriticalizing
them. My surface is very
much a false front for an
underlying degradation”

Acero inoxidable
Stay in Tonight,
1986
In the liquor advertisements, the purpose was not so much
to direct the viewer as to define social class structure. For
example, the Frangelico ads define a $45,000 and up
income, and are more concerned with being lost in one's
own thought patterns. The public is being deceived in these
advertisements on different levels of thought, because they
are educated in abstraction and luxury on different levels of
income. (Jeff Koons in J. Koons and R. Rosenblum, The Jeff
Koons Handbook, London, 1992, p. 72)
Rabbit, 1986
 ‘Banality’
Peoples, 1988

Everybody grew up surrounded by this material. I try not to use it in any

cynical manner. I use it to penetrate mass consciousness -to communicate to
people. (Jeff Koons in J. Koons and R. Rosenblum, The Jeff Koons Handbook,
London, 1992)
 Naked, 1988

In the porcelain pieces I wanted to be

able to show the sexuality of the
material. Porcelain is a material which
was created in the service of the
monarch and made in the King’s oven.
Of course, over the centuries it has
became totally democratized but still
the material always wants to return to
the service of the monarch. There is
this uplifting quality about it, this
feeling of one’s social standing being
increased just by being around the
material. (pg. 100)
• ‘Art magazine ads’,
1988-89
• (anuncios Banality,
exposición en 4 museos
consecutives: Donald
Young Gallery, Chicago;
Sonnabend Gallery,
Galerie Max Helzer,
Cologne, Museum of
Contemporary Art,
Chicago )
 St. John the
Baptist, 1988

I use the Baroque to show the

public that we are in the realm
of the spiritual, the eternal. The
church uses the Baroque to
manipulate and seduce, but in
return it does give the public a
spiritual experience. My work
deals in the vocabulary of the
Baroque.
Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988

When I was doing

the “Banality”
series, I wanted
figures that would
represent a
spiritual authority.
 Christ and the Lamb 1988

When you go to church and you

see the gold and the Rococo, it’s
there, they say, for the glory of
God. But I believe that it’s there
just to soothe the masses for
the moment; to make them feel
economically secure; to let
something else -a spiritual
experience, a manipulation -
com into their lives.
‘Made in Heaven’
Self-Portrait, 1991

My art and my life are totally

one. I have everything at my
disposal and I’m doing what I
want to do. I have my
platform, I have the attention,
and my voice can be heard.
This is the time for Jeff Koons
 Jeff in Position of Adam, 1990

Ilona and i were forn for each other. She’s a media woman. I’m a media man. We are
the contemporary Adam and Eve.
 Violet - Ice (Kama Sutra)

Pornography is
alienation. My work has
absolutely no vocabulary
in alienation. It’s about
using sexuality as a tool
to commuicate.
I have my finger on the
Ethernal. (Handbook)

Cristal
33 x 71.1 x 43.2 cm
After that, I made Made in Heaven (1989-91) and it was
really about coming to appreciate the Baroque and the
Rococo. I love Fragonard and Boucher. I also love Manet
very much. I just wanted to make a body of work that was
extremely romantic and in the Baroque and Rococo
traditions. I never planned to make work that was going
to be shocking. Masaccio’s Expulsion from Eden was a
very important painting to me as a basis for my Made in
Heaven work. I believe very strongly that what I was
doing was desexualizing the sexual aspect, which was
explicit, and sexualizing things that are normally not
sexualized, like the flowers and the animals.
Pink Bow, 1995-97
• I feel salespeople are on the front line of culture. Society
changes so much, and sales has changed a lot. I mean,
there used to be a time when a salesman would go door to
door; in America the knock on the door meant the Hoover
man was there. One of the reasons I did my vacuum-
cleaner pieces was the door-to-door salesman. Even in
Celebration, a painting like Pink Bow [1995-97] makes you
think about a birthday or a gift, but it’s also about my own
history of door-to-door selling. This is what I would buy and
sell people. And candies. (..)
•
•
•
‘Puppy’, 1992

Puppy communicates
love, warmth and
happiness to everyone.
I created a
contemporary Sacred
heart of Jesus
Balloon Dog (Orange), 1994-2000

photographed on September 9, 2008, at the Château de Versailles

“Me educaron para ser autosuficiente, así que nunca pensé
demasiado en el dinero, siempre que tuviese lo suficiente para
ocuparme de mí mismo y de los que me rodean. Solo me
interesa saber si seré capaz de hacer tal o cuál proyecto, de
mantener el estudio como está”. (El País, pg. 14)
Easyfun-Ethereal
Auto, 2001
(David Sylvester: You talked a lot about your work giving comfort and
reassurance. But the force with which it does so is surely dependent
on its always containing a dark side: the id, if you like. As well as being
affirmative, it is also disturbing and shocking)
J. K.: I never consciously sit down and try to create a work that is
optimistic and that at the same time has a dark side. I just follow my
intuition. If I am feeling a little down or something, my images
probably present themselves as happier or more upbeat. But I’m not
doing it on a conscious level. I think that i’m doing it on a truthful level.
I hope that my work has the truthfulness of Disney. I mean, in Disney
you have complete optimism, but at the same time you have Wicked
Witch with the apple. I don’t tend to be pulled toward the idea of
making a menacing work, but if I ever was pulled to that, I’m sure that
it would also have this other aspect connected. (Easyfun-Ethereal,
catalogue, 2000)
 Wall Works
Inflatable Flower, 2000

David, actually, I see my work

as opposite. I see it as
essentially conceptual. I think
that I use aesthetics as a tool,
but I think of it as a
psycological tool.
Lobster, 2003
“Through my work, i tell people to embrace their past, to
embrace who they are. By doing so, they will have a
foundation to work from. I have embraced my past and I
appreciate the beauty in it”
 Popeye
2009-2011

mirror-polished stainless steel with

transparent color coating
198.1 x 131.4 x 72.4 cm
Serie Antiquity
Antiquity 1
2009-2012
 Serie Hulk Elvis
Girl with Dolphin and Monkey
2009
The exaggerated masculinity of the Hulk is one of the key themes
of the Hulk Elvis series, and for Koons the figure represents
“both Western and Eastern culture and the sense of a guardian,
a protector.” The organ is itself a masculine symbol, not only
because of its explosive phallic pipes, but also because it is
known as the “king of instruments,” a reference to its complex
and, often, overwhelming sound. In fact, when the organ is
played, this sculpture emits a deafening, belligerent sound akin
to a race car engine. The concentration and accumulation of
these references make the sculpture a paragon—and perhaps
also parody—of machismo. (texto de sala en la Whitney)
 Gazing Balls
Gazing Ball
(Antinous-Dionysus)
2013
Play-Doh, 1995-2014
 Discusión sobre la obra de Koons
1. ¿Es “esto” arte?
Objet trouvé, apropiacionismo e
indiscernibilidad del objeto (teoría
instituacional Danto)
2. R. Rosenblum: mirada sobre el pop
actual
3. Testimonio de su época.
¿Crítico o cómplice?
4. Fusión vida y obra

5. Nuevos lenguajes y ampliación límite de las artes

les artistes sont amenés à intervenir sur le cadre privé de ces
comportements, à savoir l’habitat, et ce sans avoir de fausse pudeur vis-à-
vis de notions comme le design, ou la decorattion, qui son des notions qui
n’ont pas particulièrment fait bon ménage avec la volonté de légitimier la
pratique artistique comme champ “respectable”.

comisarios exposición Dramatically Different, Grenoble: Yves

Aupetitallot i Alessandra Galasso
 Los años 80
Exposición en Lisboa
6. Postmodernidad:
– transdisciplinariedad, el multiculturalismo,
cosmopolitismo y experimentalismo
(como ataque al conservadurismo tradicionalista)

– Aunque también: final ideologías,

fin de las interpretaciones inteligentes,
aumento del humor banal,
espectacularización
7. ¿Reflexión irónica?
Danto, sobre Warhol
(La transfiguración del lugar común, Después del fin del
arte)
H. Foster, El retorno de lo real
substituir el objeto por el signo
no hay distancia irónica
8. Experiencia estética

- obra basada en el objeto: mímesis?

- temas: sexualidad, muerte, transcendencia
desde la banalidad

- Estilo: ¿“nuevos” lenguajes”?

- apología del consumo, el liberalismo, la publicidad, la banalidad

Recepción: contemplativa, no participativa

espectacularización. Áurea postiza
Catálogos:

http://www.jeffkoons.com/artwork/projects
http://www.elconfidencial.com/cultura/2014-06-28/jeff-koons-el-gran-timo-
del-artista-vivo-mas-caro-del-mundo_153574/
http://www.abc.es/cultura/arte/20150126/abci-jeff-koons-demandas-
201501252041.html
http://whitney.org/file_columns/0006/0449/14_koons_labels.pdf