Jeff Koons is perhaps the most commercially successful living artist in history. His works are regularly sold and resold for tens of millions of dollars.
Due to his success he is also perhaps one of the most controversial artists in history. His work started gaining notoriety in the 1980s along with other artists who were exploring the meaning and purpose of art in a media-saturated society. Labeled by art experts as a Pop artist, Koon’s work is monumental, colorful and takes the form of widely recognized mass-produced objects. The image here shows a part of a work entitled Balloon Dog, a 10-feet tall polished stainless steel sculpture that looks like a trinket one might purchase for their child at a carnival or street fair. The work is a part of a series Koons calls Celebration. Koons was exposed early on to the art of presentation and commerce in his father’s furniture store, and today he strives to produce art objects that achieve visual perfection — a flawless visual experience.
Some suggest that Koons’ work is pioneering and of major significance — celebrating consumerism, optimism, individuality and sex. Others dismiss his work as kitsch based on cynical self-merchandising. Koons himself has stated that there are no hidden meanings in his work. I have to say that his work leaves me flat … and perhaps that is the point. Could it be that he so perfectly captured the shallowness of our commercial pursuits and the emptiness of our self–absorbed mindset that his work is simultaneously brilliant and completely meaningless? Is his commercial success further evidence that he tapped into the prevailing, underlying attitudes and aspirations of our age? I find it interesting that the most intriguing aspect of the experience is seeing your reflection repeated, rotated and stretched along the paper thin, colorful surfaces.