Love him or hate him, it’s impossible to deny the sway Jeff Koons has held over the art world for going on three decades. With his Whitney retrospective opening this week and all his Koonsian periods on view – from the iconic balloon animals and vitrine-sealed vacuum cleaners to his more recent forays into industrial-grade cartoon paintings and hanging trains – maybe we can all make up our minds once and for all.
Jeff Koons "Ushering in Banality" (1988)
Jeff Koons "Popeye" which sold for $28 million last spring to hotelier and casino magnate Steve Wynn.
In The Standard, High Line's front yard, the new temple of American art grows. You could practically spill a drink on it from the roof of Le Bain.
When the Koons show comes down, so will the Whitney (we'll miss you Marcel Breuer windows), taking up its new digs just a block from The Standard, High Line. Designed by Renzo Piano and situated between the High Line and the Hudson River, the new address will offer up much-needed exhibition space as well as locate the world's premier American art collection 90 seconds from our front door. All we can say is ...
We're very excited ...
A young Koons posing in his 1989 "Made in Heaven" porn series with his ex-wife, Ilona Staller, a.k.a Cicciolina, a porn star slash elected Italian politician who offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein in return for peace. True story.
