Jeff Koons: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum
June 27, 2014 - Oct 19, 2014
Now at Centre Pompidou in Paris from November 26, 2014 to April 27, 2015
Currently at the Whitney Museum of American Arts, situated in the upper east side on 75th and Madison from June 27th to October 19th 2014. Jeff Koons is the first artist to occupy the most space at the Whitney. Five floors are dedicated to his works throughout the years.
One of the best exhibits I have seen and a personal favorite. I was not too familiar with his works prior to the exhibit, aside from the famous balloon dog. His sculptures and exhibits are clean cut and well portrayed. His huge emphasis on precision and detail are shown in his works. I like his take on readymades and found objects, especially his "infatables" and "the new series" series, he was able to take such ordinary day-to-day objects and rebrand them into something nostalgic, beautiful and add value. His "luxury and degradation" series was also very impressive, he again utilizes the found objects and turns them into something extraordinary, a simple stainless steal coating changed the perception of these objects entirely. They became desirable and anything but ordinary. He almost takes a backwards approach of the original surrealist concept of a found object, in that, the mysterious object in its original found state is the marvel, but once you figure out its purpose, it no longer is extraordinary. But Jeff Koons takes the ordinary found object and turns it into something extraordinary.
What I really enjoyed about his work is the cleanness and professionalism. Most modern art these days in my opinion are overly cynical about the present and loses the traditional emphasis of a beautiful work of art, but Jeff Koons is able to incorporate his social commentaries in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
