Assignment 6 (part) - Research and Mumblings on Jeff Koons

I have decided to focus the first part of my personal research on a few select artists, that are in a style that I'm personally striving to be in the same concept zone as. They might be a bit obscure with the way that I have chosen certain artists, but in my personal opinion, they all have made a major contribution to modern art, and the ideas of popular stylised art. They all feature, In different ways a confident cute aesthetic that I'm searching to understand more about, you could say that have that je ne sais quoi about them. Some of the artists that I'm going to look into and research in the next few weeks, as a starting point to by project, are: Grayson Perry, Jake and Dinos Chapman (for an anti view), Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki (founder of Studio Ghibli), Ikuko Shimizu (founder of Hello Kitty) and not forgetting Jeff Koons.

Jeff Koons is a fairly well known American artist, best known for his high shine metal sculptures, or his range of inflatable flowers. One collection that I'd like to focus on is his 'Celebration' series, where he features life milestones in oil paintings and sculptures. His work has an overall plasticised feel to it, everything is made of a high gloss plastic, or painted in a way to look like a high shine plastic, or metal object. His metal objects are extremely shiny and always includes the viewer in the piece, as you cannot avoid yourself in these mirror like pieces.

This reflectivity is no more incidental to the work than its linearity, since even the paintings mostly depict their subjects against mylar backgrounds, and though the resulting play of light gives the work the appearance of being constantly "on," its import is not purely visual. What does the viewer see as he circles one of the sculptures? It, certainly, but also himself in its surface. It is virtually impossible to see the artwork without seeing oneself. (Supervert, 1997)

Hanging Heart - Jeff Koons 1994-2008

That Koons has found a way is made plain by the unexpectedness of the terms (trust, sincerity, archetypality, objectivity) in which he speaks of his new work, Celebration.(Supervert,1997)

One of the major pieces of work is the 'Hanging Heart' which is probably one of the most recognised as being Jeff Koons, It's a very large very shiny metal heart, with all the connotations that go along with the heart as a symbol, love, sex, desire, all wrapped up in a high glossed coloured mirror finish, it really is an item of fetish value. Or in contrast, is it an item of cute value, as hearts are considered to be sweet, and cute, but then you must look back to the meanings of sexuality expressed in the shape.

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, said: "Hanging Heart is a stainless steel monument from a body of work so rare, so surreal and so beautiful that one almost ceases to believe it exists. Executing this work required extraordinary precision, finesse and lavish attention to achieve such perfection of the highest order. Koons is an artist who doesn’t allow compromise, and Hanging Heart is all about making an impossibility possible." Alex Rotter, Senior Vice President and Senior Specialist of Contemporary Art, continued: "This is a simply unforgettable work. Hanging Heart is both powerful and romantic – the quintessential reflection of sexuality. It is highly desirable and the perfect match for this icon-driven market." (Art Knowledge News, 2007)

I quite like the idea of including an element of shine to my work, but I am failing to find a connection with how I could include this in a new way, and not in some cringe worthy pastiche. So, I will move onto looking at other elements of his work, such as the bright colours. Maybe this is where the magic hides, with his use of colour, is there a link between colour choices and a childlike essence, I think so. The bright colours that he chooses are reminiscent of childhood toys, which also feature in a new way in his work. Toys and childlike features may be able to play a key role within my project of identifying exactly what 'cute' is, is cute a sense of childhood items, past memories, before we were aware of perversion?

Koons chose to cast many of the Celebration sculptures in polyethylene for precisely this effect. This plastic, common in toys, is the material with which children learn how to become adults: one’s first hammer and gun are always polyethylene. However, in Koons’ sculptures it points not forward but backward: invoking cognition less than recognition, it turns the focus away from the artist (why did he do that?) and toward the viewer (I remember that!). The very transition from a question to an assertion already indicates an increase in certainty. (Supervert, 1997)

Position 3 - Jeff Koons 1993

This confirms my point about Koons wanting to include the audience in the piece, whether it be about remembering something from childhood, or actually being visible in the mirrors, or both. Koons is interesting as an artist as his work has progressed extensively over the years, his earlier work is fairly pornographic, such as the 'made in heaven' collection, He is trying to dig into a new aesthetic, while maintaining his own personal style, but he has become increasingly popular the less sexual at first glance his work appears to be. Rather than the blatant sexuality and fetishism that is shown in his made in heaven collection, he has opted for a more low key style of fetishism, consumer fetishism. By that, I mean the high gloss commercial art world, with its desirability being placed on kitsch items, which can now be picked up on from the trend of Warholesque commerciality, with the same link to Warhol as low culture items being made into high art.

A repudiation of this asceticism was latent in Koons long before the pornographic works of Made in Heaven. Certain early works such as BUNNY were able to turn the readymade on its head simply by no longer treating it puritanically, like a chess move. Instead, they approached it by means of affect and visceral response. BUNNY was pretty, happy, glossy, funny, even beautiful. Might not the simple certainty of a sensory experience revitalize the aesthetic compact? When an artwork inspires a sense of beauty, it is as difficult to doubt the reality of that affect as of a feeling of pain. (Supervert, 1997)

Bunny - Jeff Koons 2007

There is no real doubt in my mind that Jeff Koons work isn't gorgeous, It definitely has that certain je ne sais quoi that I've been looking for, and now I've been able to deconstruct very briefly some of his ideas I should be able to take inspiration from his skill, both with the conceptual elements, and with the perfect perfectionist finishes. He is indubitably a master of capturing this 'cute' aesthetic, but not in the way of manga faces drawn onto simplistic cartoons, he does however capture the 'cute' aesthetic in the form of innocence, with a possibility for perversion.

References:

artknowledgenews. 2007. Sotheby's NY to offer Jeff Koons' " Hanging Heart ". [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Jeff_Koons_Hanging_Heart.html. [Accessed 05 December 11].

Covent Garden London. 2010. Jeff Koons Rabbit Bounces In. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.coventgardenlondonuk.com/events-entertainment-culture/articles/jeff-koons-rabbit-exhibits-in-covent-garden. [Accessed 05 December 11].

Jeff Koons. 2011. Jeff Koons. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.jeffkoons.com/site/index.html. [Accessed 05 December 11].

Supervert. 1997. Jeff Koons: Frankenstein in Paradise. [ONLINE] Available at: http://supervert.com/essays/art/jeff_koons. [Accessed 05 December 11].