I’ve been wanting to write about shibui, the Japanese aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty.
But then this article about one of the, if not THE, highest paid artists in the world today comes up on my screen. This is required reading for all of you who roll your eyes to the ceiling and blow raspberries when you cite Jeff Koons as what’s wrong with the art world today.
I Was Jeff Koons’s Studio Serf, by John Powers, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/magazine/i-was-jeff-koonss-studio-serf.html?hpw
Jeff Koons is represented by Gagosian, of course. http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/october-02-2006–jeff-koons
If you are a fan of Jeff Koons, please introduce yourself.
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 
Read through the article as soon as the paper hit the driveway this morning. So–would you like to say more about what you took from the article? I’m not one of the raspberry-blowing eye-rollers, but I guess I don’t understand what is supposed to be so eye-opening about the article, so please tell us more. I’m clearly missing your point today.
Reading the article did jog my memory about a novel that came out a few years ago by a former studio assistant–I can’t remember the name of book or author, but “The American Painter Emma Dial” by Samantha Peale is the only thing that comes up in my on-line search, and the plot sounds right. Based on the online search, it appears Peale also was a studio assistant to Koons. Nothing earth-shattering in this novel, although it was a well written peek behind the scenes at the business of art for a know-nothing like me. Being a novel, it ends on a hopeful note (unlike the article).
To me both the novel and this article in the NYT are about the high wire walk of using one’s skills in service of someone else’s idea vs. using those same skills to communicate one’s own ideas. Apparently Koons’ assistants were better paid than othersfor their skills, so it doesn’t seem a necesarily bad thing to me, but I guess it leaves the assistant too spent to use the rest of available time exploring his/her own art.
So please expound on your take on this articale…Thanks!
Sorry to respond so late, I need to make a habit of checking for comments regularly. The eye-rolling happens in response to Koons’s work itself. Whenever the subject comes up in class, lots of students express their disgust with him. The NYtimes article by John Powers is obviously–to me, at least–a putdown of Koons’ work. I also need to add some data that I found in the Times today: “…in 2008, a stainless steel rabbit sculpture by the American artist Jeff Koons reportedly sold privately for $80 million, not long after his “Hanging Heart” set a record at auction for a living artist, selling for $23.6 million. But since then, prices for his works have plunged — when they actually sell. His “Balloon Flower (Blue)” sold for $16.9 million in 2010 and another “Hanging Heart” sold privately this year for a reported $11 million. Several other Koons works put up for auction didn’t sell.” You’ll find the quote in a fascinating article on architecture being sold as art: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/business/prices-for-luxury-real-estate-keep-rising-it-must-be-art.html?_r=1