CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS
Visited: 15.02.15
Whilst in Paris a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist the temptation to pop along to the current Jeff Koons exhibition showing at the Centre Pompidou. I had known Koons to be the artist/ sculptor of the iconic balloon dog but had never seen any of his works and since his balloon dog (which appears a shiny, plastic balloon when in fact being a stainless steel sculpture) was sold in 2013 for a staggering £36 million, becoming the world record auction price for a living artist I thought it would be worth checking out his work with the naked eye.
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| The Inflatable series |
The Inflatables is seen by Koons as his first series which he created with blow up toys that he had bought from discount stores in New York which are displayed and positioned on mirrors. His fascination with inflatable objects is demonstrated by the use of mirrors reflecting not only a double angled vision encore of them but also ourselves.. "I’ve always enjoyed objects that contain air because they are very anthropomorphic’ meaning they are very human like. I think the use of air is a running theme constantly throughout Koons work. He relates these blown up animals to humans and we see again, within a lot of his other sculptural work, this theme of air.. most notably his balloon dog. The link between us and these blown up objects is that we are both filled with air however, the blown up objects have the same frozen air within in them, becoming stale and old where as we have air within our body which is always being exhaled and inhaled encore et encore and so we are constantly filled with new, fresh air molecules.
With the use of mirrors in the inflatables, Koons refers to the minimialist work of artist Robert Smithson (http://www.robertsmithson.com/introduction/introduction.htm). Mirrors are also, in fact, a running theme within his work so that the viewer is always included within the piece of Art ,reflecting not only ourselves but society around us and the focal point of his work of our consumer society. Koons stopped painting and decided to try to create an art form that would transcend his personal fantasies and embrace the outside world and so began to buy objects with the intention to reflect the key gesture of modernity reminiscing on popular culture and pop art aesthetics where we can see the evident influence of Andy Warhol.
In his new series composed of hoovers, Koons breaks away from the playful and youthful appeal of the inflatables, reflecting his vision of American society, covering domestic convenience, the dream of personal success and the determined and uncompromising hunt of innovation and creation. This series also demonstrates his vibrant fascination of industrial production. Koons places various models of new hoovers in brightly, fluroescent lit (influenced by Dan Flavin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Flavin ), acrylic plexiglass display cases. The use of these juxtapositional images, Koons subjects the definition of Minimialist sculpture to the artistic visual of commercial display in turn revealing their formal similarities. He critics the banality of consumerism by glorifying it by making objects such as hoovers look beautiful, desirable and perfect.
Born in Pennsylvania, in 1955, Jeff Koons studied art at Maryland School of Art and then became Ed Paschke's studio assistant ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Paschke ), an artist who Koons idolised. He then shifted to New York where he worked enthusiastically for the Museum of Modern Art. Throughout his life he was influenced greatly by both And Warhol and Salvador Dali. Warhol made silk screen prints in his factory... Koons took this industrial idea a lot further later in his artistic career by employing hundreds of skilled professional craftsmen to make his sculptured balloon dogs without any input from Koons himself.
Admittedly, Koons use of tromp l'oeil is indeed fantastic creating a stainless steel sculpture which looks as though you could pop with a pin. This is due to his incredible level of perfectionism, the existing technology and huge amount of money put into manufacturing sculptures like these. His art is both banal and empty but he certainly does manage to transform money into a form of art.
Admittedly, Koons use of tromp l'oeil is indeed fantastic creating a stainless steel sculpture which looks as though you could pop with a pin. This is due to his incredible level of perfectionism, the existing technology and huge amount of money put into manufacturing sculptures like these. His art is both banal and empty but he certainly does manage to transform money into a form of art.
Of course there exists so many different art forms and way to express art, however, although very visually pleasing and interesting to involve one’s self within, I don’t find Koons work particularly incredible or moving. In some sort of success, Koons does reconstruct banality into high art. However although he creates a form of high art that contains enduring fascination, it is just a series of large sculpture made from everyday objects… party balloons and hoovers that is not all that imaginative nor beautiful. A fabulously interesting, grand and eye capturing exhibition but not to be compared with the beauty of artists such as Gustav Klimt, Hockney, Picasso, Banksy, Kiefer, Rauschenberg, Frank Stella.......
Because of the lack of originality in these objects in Koons works, 3 years ago when Koons threatened legal action against a book shop who were selling bookends with a balloon dog on it, he had to back down because as a lawyer for the bookshop made the point that “As virtually any clown can attest, no one owns the idea of making a balloon dog."
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