Jeff Koons by Katie https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x American Artist en-us 2018-05-10 17:18:36 UTC 2025-11-12 07:42:22 UTC hello@padlet.com Who is he? cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259712846 Jeff Koons was born in January of 1955 in York, Pennsylvania. He is currently 63 years old. He is an American Artist who has been influenced by neo-pop. Neo-pop was a movement in the 80’s where inspiration came from early pop artist. He lives in both his hometown in Pennsylvania, and his apartment in New York City. Since 1978 he has created 150 sculptures and works of art. He’s not your average artist as he gets his inspiration from things you might find around the house like vacuum cleaners, balloons, plastic toys and porcelain trinkets. While his artwork sells for millions of dollars, one of his pieces broke a world record auction price for the most expensive piece purchased from a living artist. He stated himself that there is no hidden message behind any of his works. Koons is thought to be one of the most important, influential, and controversial artists of the postwar era.]]> 2018-05-10 17:19:58 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259712846 Early Life cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259713272 Jeff Koons was born in Pennsylvania, into an art influenced family. His father worked as an interior designer, and also sold furniture while his mother was a seamstress. From an early age of 5, Jeff loved to paint replications of older famous pieces, some were even displayed in his father's store. As a teen, he always adored Salvador Dali. He loved how Dali created work from several different periods of art such as the Surrealism, Expressionism, Impressionism, Realism, and Cubism periods. He used Dali as a role model and loved him so much that he attempted to visit him when he was staying at a hotel in New York. He always knew he wanted to go to school for art.]]> 2018-05-10 17:20:58 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259713272 Education cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259713524 After graduating he left Pennsylvania to attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. While earning his M.F.A. at the school, he went to attend a show at the Whitney Museum in New York. The exhibition changed his life as the Chicago imagists encouraged him to transfer into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He did just what they said and transferred the next semester to the Institute in Chicago. While being a student at the Chicago institute, he met artist Ed Paschke. Ed Paschke became a huge influence for Koons, and he ended up working for Paschke as a studio assistant. ]]> 2018-05-10 17:21:33 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259713524 Michael Jackson and Bubbles cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259721739 2018-05-10 17:41:10 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259721739 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259935154 2018-05-11 13:26:14 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259935154 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259935358 2018-05-11 13:26:44 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259935358 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259935952 2018-05-11 13:28:18 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259935952 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259936643 2018-05-11 13:29:59 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259936643 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259937713 2018-05-11 13:32:41 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259937713 Fun Facts about Koons cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259938402 -As a child he sold gift-wrapping paper and candies going door to door in his neighborhood to make money for himself
-Around the age of 8 years old, he started painting copies of Old Master paintings and sold them at his father's furniture store
-Koons first job after art school was working behind the information desk of the MoMA. His co-workers remember him as a very goofy guy. He came to work in a costume with an inflatable tie
-His very own blood is on one of Ed Paschke’s paintings from the 70s
-Koon wanted to be able to support his life as an artist, so for 6 years he worked on Wall Street selling stocks and bonds
-He stated in a interview that the custody battle for his son changed the way he thought about his art
-Koons was asked by a charity in his hometown to spruce up their CT-scan room. He went above and beyond, transforming the room with paint, stickers, and miniature versions of his sculptures
-He is a big Led Zeppelin fan
-He has over 120 employees 
-Koons claimed that the only parallels to his work in the 20th century are Picasso and Duchamp
]]> 2018-05-11 13:34:32 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259938402 Quotes cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259939122 “I love the gallery, the arena of representation. It’s a commercial world, and morality is based generally around economics, and that’s taking place in the art gallery.”
–Journal of Contemporary Art, 1986

“A viewer might at first see irony in my work… but I see none at all. Irony causes too much critical contemplation.”
–Jeff Koons Handbook, 1993

“My art and my life are totally one. I have everything at my disposal and I’m doing what I want to do. I have my platform, I have the attention. This is the time for Jeff Koons.”
–Jeff Koons Handbook, 1993

“I have seen how works of art can be used against people, how they can be demanding and intimidating, by the suggestion that you can’t enjoy or understand them unless you have read this piece of literature, or know that piece of mythology. It is total disempowerment. But art has the ability to achieve the absolute opposite of that.”
–Financial Times, 2009
]]> 2018-05-11 13:36:25 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/259939122 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260025083 In this piece of art, Koons features Michael Jackson and his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. The sculpture is life sized and porcelain. Michael Jackson is leaning back onto a bed of flowers, while Bubbles sits back on his leg. Koons template was a photo of Jackson with his chimp, and the sculpture came out almost identical. They are both painted wearing a white and gold suit. Jackson and the monkeys body parts are parallel. It was created in 1988, within the framework of his Banality series. ]]> 2018-05-11 17:14:08 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260025083 Koons Statement on this work of art cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260025848 “Michael was there as a contemporary Christ. If you look at the sculpture, it actually is like the Pietà. It has the same configuration, the triangular aspect, so it’s making reference to that. He is there like a contemporary Christ figure to assure people that it’s okay.”
–Interview magazine, 2012
]]> 2018-05-11 17:15:27 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260025848 Sources cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260028707 “Jeff Koons: A Retrospective Jun 27–Oct 19, 2014.” Sinister Pop | Whitney Museum of American Art, 5 Sept. 2016, whitney.org/Exhibitions/JeffKoons.

“Jeff Koons.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 10 June 2016, www.biography.com/people/jeff-koons-507550.

Aestheticsforbirds. “Jeff Koons, Playto, and snowboarding.” AESTHETICS FOR BIRDS, 11 Dec. 2016, aestheticsforbirds.com/2016/12/11/jeff-koons-plato-and-snowboarding/.]]> 2018-05-11 17:23:35 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260028707 Balloon Dog cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260456976 2018-05-14 13:29:21 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260456976 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260457739 The Balloon dog series features Jeff Koons most famous pieces. Koons stated that the intention of the balloon dog is to “seduce and manipulate”. After he created his first sculpture, he created four more since. The orange balloon dog was his first one he created in 1994. They stand over 10 feet tall and weigh over a ton. It is finished off with mirror polished stainless steel and a translucent coating of color so it is attractive and appealing to the eye. The colors the balloon dogs have been polished are orange, red, yellow, blue and purple. In 2013, Koons “Balloon Dog” in orange sold for a $58.4 million at Christie’s auction house. This was record breaking and made his this piece of work the most expensive piece to be purchased by a living artist. Koons focuses on the perfection of where the joints connect and the symmetry of the dog. When a person is looking up at the sculpture, they can see their own distorted reflection. The work brings joyful emotions from childhood, while also displaying the luxury conveyed in growing up. In this piece Koons got his inspiration from Warhol’s work, integrating history of Western Art. ]]> 2018-05-14 13:30:43 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260457739 Statements from the artist cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260486890 Koons said, “I’ve always enjoyed balloon animals because they’re like us. We’re balloons. You take a breath and you inhale, it’s an optimism. You exhale, and it’s kind of a symbol of death.”

Koons stated the Balloon Dog is, "a very optimistic piece, it's a balloon that a clown would maybe twist for you at a birthday party. But at the same time it's a Trojan Horse. There are other things here that are inside: maybe the sexuality of the piece."

]]> 2018-05-14 14:29:51 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260486890 Puppy cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260487328 2018-05-14 14:30:41 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260487328 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260487980 This work of art is a living plant sculpture created in 1997. “Puppy” is over 40 feet tall and represents the West Highland terrier dog breed.History was incorporated in the artwork because at this time a terrorist attack plot had been planned with a few men disguised as gardeners, planting grenades in flower pots. A policeman was killed and a puppy was injured in the attack. The sculpture toured the globe traveling in Germany, Australia, and the United States. Each time it is moved, fresh flowers replace the previous ones, so it is never the same. Marigolds, petunias, impatiens and lobelias are some of the flowers found on Puppy. Koons integrated past and present by using a computer model to reflect a 18th century garden. It found its final home in Spain, in the Aguirre Plaza which was named in honor of Officer Aguirre. The flowers continue to grow every day. “Puppy” is a part of the Guggenheim Bilbao collection.]]> 2018-05-14 14:32:05 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260487980 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260547060 2018-05-14 16:36:43 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260547060 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260548251 2018-05-14 16:39:15 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260548251 Koons' Statement on Puppy cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260552607  In Koons own words, the sculpture should bring the feeling of “confident and security”. ]]> 2018-05-14 16:49:16 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260552607 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260553663 2018-05-14 16:51:50 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260553663 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260554094 2018-05-14 16:52:48 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260554094 cahillc1 https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260554287 2018-05-14 16:53:19 UTC https://padlet.com/cahillc1/z5rbctxng72x/wish/260554287