Thursday Art - Jeff Koons

Hi friends~sorry for the radio silence yesterday.  I was off from work again due to the storm and ended up spending the day doing things around the house and finally getting my phone working again.  Yeah, my old Droid gave up on me on Saturday night.  Luckily, I inherited my dad's Iphone4, so guess what I was doing for a couple of hours?  Off to Verizon, transferring the data from my old to new phone (I am finally an Iphone owner and man, do I love this phone!  I now see what all the hoopla & hype was about!)  Instead of waiting in the store, I broke my cabin fever by going to the Marshalls around the corner.  And did I walk out of there with some amazing goodies or what!! I haven't been to Marshalls in ages and they had some really amazing bargains. 

So, did you miss my Wednesday Art? Here it is, a day late (sorry!) - I present to you Jeff Koons.  Until I started doing  the research, I did not know that he was a PA native.  Yup, from York, PA. Who is he?  He's the artist who makes those HUGE ballon puppies, flowers, and a giant heart.  

   
People either LOVE or HATE Koons work.  Actually, that's not true. I don't LOVE or HATE his work, I'm just seriously amused. I find it incredible that Koons' work, in essence stem from a very simple and childlike concept of gigantifying (yup, just made this word up!) easy cutout objects such as hearts, puppies, and flowers.  But these huge installations lead our eyes to wonder aimlessly, and the reflections created by all angles of the objects themselves also capture our eyes and thoughts.  And the colors of Koons work are always bright and brilliant, enhanced by the magnification of the objects.  Who doesn't love a big suspended inflatable heart? Or a building size topiary of a Westie?  I am of course, biased as I have two adorable Westies! As inflatable and weightless as they seem, these objects are made out of chromium stainless steel and rather heavy (see here for more pictures and descriptions). 

Like many artists, Koons has his share of controversies (lawsuits, critics, a disgruntled ex-assistant, etc.).  And his personal life is, um, pretty wild - he was once married to a Hungarian-born naturalized Italian pornography star, Cicciolina (Ilona Staller). Yep. No commment.

Koons remains one of the most marketable living U.S.artists ever.  In 2008, his balloon flower (in magenta) was sold for a cool $25.7 mil. Now, why did our parents discourage us from becoming an artist??!!  Happy Thursday - we are one day closer to TGIF. 

(Sources:  here; here; here)

p.s. A little update on how people are doing here in the Philly area post Storm Sandy - While I went totally unscathed, a lot of my friends and colleagues are still without power and dealing with damages to their homes and cars. So, please keep sending your positive thoughts and prayers to the east coast folks affected by the storm~