Jeff Koons
Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988
Porcelain, 106.7 x 179.1 x 82.6 cm
Edition no. 1/3
Private Collection
© Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons: Retrospective – Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents a comprehensive survey of the work and career of Jeff Koons, a key figure ininternational contemporary art. June 9 – September 27, 2015.]]>
Source: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Around a hundred pieces from Koons’s various artistic stages afford the public the opportunity tosurvey Koons’s career and the full scope of his work, which constitutes a personal reaffirmation ofthe artist. His oeuvre, whose diverse series from the 1970s up through the present day are displayedchronologically in the Museum’s galleries, is populated with art historical references, especially toSurrealism, Pop Art, and Dadaism.
One noteworthy aspect of Koons’s artistic output is the evolution in his use of the readymadeconcept. Koons gradually disrupts the notion of the readymade as it was formulated by Duchamp,transitioning from direct exhibition of industrial objects to reproducing them, making changes inmaterial, scale, and possible meaning.
Koons’s work lacks the aura of inaccessibility that often surrounds other contemporary creations.Very much to the contrary, his art is open, meant to seduce, and has proven attractive to the generalpublic. Koons considers art to be a driving force of social change that helps us go beyond our limits,and his work draws from acceptance of ourselves and of our respective cultural histories.
With extraordinary tenacity, Koons always strives to achieve what he sets out to do. One of hisprimary concerns is giving his works an exquisite formal finish, an aspect he plans carefully andpainstakingly, and which often requires cutting-edge technology. His creative process requires a widearray of mediums, as evidenced in the final object: his creations function as icons of modern society,symbols of popular culture, a celebration and, at times, a critique of contemporary taste. Koons isalso the creator of emblematic pieces such as Puppy, the sculpture standing outside the GuggenheimMuseum Bilbao that has become Bilbao’s true icon.
Related content
Jeff Koons: A Retrospective – Centre Pompidou, Paris (exhibition, 2014)
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