Book Description

For his recent series of work entitled Easy Fun-Ethereal, Jeff Koons employs new computer technology to merge populist icons into desktop collages, which he then transforms into traditional oil paintings rendered with photorealist precision. Drawn from glossy magazines and advertisements, the imagery includes smiley-faced sandwiches, spiraling roller coasters, succulent lips and abstract juice splashes. These hybrids of fun and fantasy simultaneously celebrate childhood pleasures and adult sexual desire: in keeping with Koons's stated intention to "communicate with the masses," the cheerful works are accessible to all. Accompanying an exhibition of seven large-scale paintings commissioned for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, this lively volume features 40 full-color reproductions. Art historian David Sylvester's interview with Koons puts forth the artist's perspective on his career to date, while Robert Rosenblum's essay provides an in-depth analysis of the technique and imagery employed in EasyFun-Ethereal. Essay by Robert Rosenblum.~Interview by David Sylvester. Hardcover, 11 x 8.25 in./80 pgs / 40 color 0 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20385 ... Read more

Book Description

The man who enshrined a Hoover vacuum cleaner, who suspended a basketball in a fish tank half filled with water, who created a life-size polychromed wooden replica of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles, who transferred his sex life with his then-wife, Italian porn star Ilona Staller (aka Cicciolina), onto canvas, and who made a monumental topiary sculpture in the shape of a puppy, is here given a mini-retrospective in the form of a book. Jeff Koons: Pictures 1980-2002 focuses primarily on the formation and development of Koons's paintings, but, given that he considers his early sculptures to be "three-dimensional paintings," this limit need hardly be considered medium-restrictive. Thomas Kellein's extended interview provides a walloping good tale told by the artist himself. In it, Koons remembers his childhood drawing lessons, his first sale (his father had a decorating business and showroom where he would display and sell his 11-year-old son's art), his experiences at art school, his courtship with ex-wife Cicciolina (they fell in love after he hired her to make his Made in Heaven series), and how the birth of his son inspired his Celebration series, all the while sharing his philosophies on art. Organized chronologically and with an extended biography and bibliography, Pictures presents each of the main works from Koons's painting series from 1980 to the present.
The moral aspect in my work has always been so important. I am always trying--that's my ability--to be as moral as possible.
I am really convinced that you cannot create art. You can't. You can create culture, and if you create art, it will be about the purity of the idea. The initial intuition is to make that gesture. There you don't get caught in aesthetics. You don't believe in anything that has a value other than that gesture. --Jeff Koons

Essay and Interview by Thomas Kellein.

Hardcover, 6.75 x 9.5 in.,120 pages, 45 color illustrations ... Read more

Book Description

The man who enshrined a hoover vacuume and a basketball, who created a life-sized polychromed wood replica of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles, who transfered his sex life with Italian porn star wife Ilona Staller onto canvas, and who made a monumental topiary sculpture in the shape of a puppy, is back. After a seven-year hiatus from the public eye, bad boy Jeff Koons returns in this comprehensive and overdue survey of his work of the past five years. Three elaborate, highly-produced series are presented, including the joyously effusive "Celebration," an ambitious body of 16 photo-realist paintings and 20 stainless steel sculptures that draw upon the symbols and objects associated with the observance of life's festive rituals.
Essays by Eckard Schneider and Alison Gingeras.

9.5 x 11 in.
40 color illustrations
English/German ... Read more

Reviews (2)

try to make something good for once.
most of koons work is just duchamps idea repeated in several different forms.

pornography and Art - can they live together???
Pornography - Erotic Art is only few of his works! but takes big place in every reader mind!! (and please don't tell me u buy Playboy for the articles...) Jeff Koons decided to expose himself and his intimic life. He is no longer takes his wife and show HER nudity! but expose himself as well! he makes us think about the thin line between Pornography and Art! and he defenatly do it in a wondergul gentle way! Have fun and don't feel guilty forenjoying the regular Art inside the book! ... Read more

Book Description

"Hypermental" tracks, with unprecedented insight, the unfinished project of surrealism, exploring the visual art of the modern era not in terms of genres, schools, or media, but through the lens of subjectivity.This new catalogue explores how the modernist critique of the subject--exemplified by the art and philosophy of the Surrealists--has continued on through the postwar period and through to the present day. From Merit Oppenheim and Yayoi Kusama in the 1950s and 60s to Cindy Sherman and Matthew Barney in the 90s, we find works that interrogate the construction of the subject, and the body, through sexual difference. From the Pop-era pieces of Richard Hamilton and James Rosenquist to the more recent work of Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger, we find a narrative of the production of desire, one that refers explicitly to the elevated status of the commodity. "Hypermental" presents work by these artists and many more, juxtaposing their work with that of the original surrealists, and the resulting book is an exceptionally unique history of the most radical trends in the history of 20th century art. ... Read more

Book Description

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons presents contemporary art from the private collections of Eli and Edythe Broad, which are among the most important in the world. Featuring works by 22 significant artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Cindy Sherman, this handsome volume addresses major movements such as American Neo-Dada and Pop, and German Neo-Expressionism, as well as art of the 1980s and current works from California.

An interview with the Broads and scholarly texts addressing important aspects of the collections situate the 160 full-color plates in art-historical context. ... Read more

Book Description

What a lush garden! Imagine the berserk beds that could sprout Koons' polychromed wood begonias next to Warhol's Matisse-adrift-on-Monet silkscreened petunias. This smart volume plants Koons' mostly sculptural exploration of the flower motif alongside a history of Warhol's serialized prints and drawings of the same from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Essay by Daniel Pinchbeck. Hardcover, 10.25 x 10.25 in./111 pgs / 62 color 0 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20137 ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from C: International Contemporary Art, published by C The Visual Arts Foundation on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 1551 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: All ways lead to Rome--talking to la Cicciolina.
Author: Suzana Sucic
Publication: C: International Contemporary Art (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: C The Visual Arts Foundation
Issue: 81Page: 40(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more