Jeff Koons: Art History
Jeff Koons describes how he likes to “communicate with other artists” by making art historical references—from Classical to Modern—in his sculptures and paintings.
Credits
Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Kurt Branstetter & Joel Shapiro. Sound: Mark Mandler. Editor: Paulo Padilha & Mark Sutton. Artwork Courtesy: Jeff Koons. Special Thanks: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
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Jeff Koons plucks images and objects from popular culture, framing questions about taste and pleasure. His contextual sleight-of-hand, which transforms banal items into sumptuous icons, takes on a psychological dimension through dramatic shifts in scale, spectacularly engineered surfaces, and subliminal allegories of animals, humans, and anthropomorphized objects. Organizing his own studio production in a manner that rivals a Renaissance workshop, Koons makes computer-assisted, handcrafted works that communicate through their meticulous attention to detail.
“I was hungry—I wanted to learn, I wanted something to transform my life, and art has that ability.”
Jeff Koons
Historical Influences
Art Changes Every Day
In this interview, Jeff Koons talks about his relationship with art, his exhibition at the Château de Versailles, and misrepresentations of his work.
