Jeff Koons
1st Edition
Published on 28. March 2008
Book
Hardback
606 pages
978-3-8228-4944-6 (ISBN)
Description
From kinky to kitsch to conceptual, Jeff Koons' art is anything but conformist. Since he stirred up the art world establishment in the 1980s with his unapologetic basketball sculptures and stainless steel toy blow-ups, Koons has been known as somewhat of a bad boy - a reputation he confirmed in the early 90s via works depicting him having sex with then-wife Cicciolina, the Italian porn star-cum-politician. Following this torrid phase, he changed gears to produce the gargantuan Puppy, the 43-foot tall floral terrier that now resides at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Koons' exploitation of the banal, in the aggrandizement and/or embodiment of kitsch and pop imagery, has become his trademark; detractors may delight in their naysaying, but Koons' work commands millions at auction and his position at the forefront of contemporary art is indisputable. This exhaustive monograph begins with a biographical essay by "Interview" magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Sischy that puts his work into context and tells his personal story, as well as a text by Eckhard Schneider's analyzing Koons from a European perspective.
Arranged in chronological chapters by work groups, the main body of the book features art historian and critic Katy Siegel's detailed analyses alongside hundreds of large-format images tracing Koons' career from 1979 to today. Rounding off the book are an extended bibliography and a lavishly illustrated biography. Fans of Jeff Koons' work will find in this publication not only a sumptuous book-object, but also the most comprehensive study of the artist's work ever published.
Arranged in chronological chapters by work groups, the main body of the book features art historian and critic Katy Siegel's detailed analyses alongside hundreds of large-format images tracing Koons' career from 1979 to today. Rounding off the book are an extended bibliography and a lavishly illustrated biography. Fans of Jeff Koons' work will find in this publication not only a sumptuous book-object, but also the most comprehensive study of the artist's work ever published.
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Persons
Book designer and editor Hans Werner Holzwarth studied photography and communication design, then co-led his own company for corporate design. He worked as a freelance art director for Scalo before founding his own imprint in 2000 Holzwarth Publications, which was created with the goal of publishing artists' books to further enhance the expression of their work. Holzwarth has collaborated with artists such as Richard Billingham, Larry Clark, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, Rebecca Horn, Roni Horn, Karl Lagerfeld, Boris Mikhailov, Issey Miyake, Albert Oehlen, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Kiki Smith, Jock Sturges, Juergen Teller, Jeff Wall, John Waters, and Christopher Wool. For TASCHEN he also designed the books Taschen Collection and Martin Kippenberger. Katy Siegel is an assistant professor of art history and criticism at Hunter College-CUNY, and a contributing editor to Artforum. The co-author with Paul Mattick of Art Works: Money (Thames & Hudson, 2004), she has written extensively about modern and contemporary art including, most recently, catalogue essays on Richard Tuttle, Takashi Murakami, and Dana Schutz. Ingrid Sischy is the Editor in Chief of Interview magazine, a position she has held since December 1989. Since 1997 Sischy has also been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and has written profiles of artists such as Francesco Clemente, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, James Rosenquist, actress Nicole Kidman, and performer Madonna. Prior to joining Interview, Sischy was the Editor in Chief of Artforum from 1979 to 1988, at which point she joined The New Yorker magazine as a staff writer and as the magazine's photography critic; later she also became the magazine's fashion critic. Eckhard Schneider, born 1943 in Coppatz near Berlin. After studying art and working for a short time as an art teacher, he became head of the Nordhorn Municipal Gallery from 1976-1989. From 1990-2000 he was the business manager and artistic director of the Kunstverein Hannover. In addition, he was active as advisor, designer and curator, amongst others for Expo 2000. Since October 2000 he is Director of the Kunsthaus Bregenz.