Jeff Koons : Easyfun-Ethereal - Robert Rosenblum

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Résumé :
Since the late 1970s Jeff Koons has created an exceptional body of work that reflects deeply upon the complex concerns of Western culture. Entitled Easyfun-Ethereal, Koons's new series of paintings employs imagery drawn from glossy magazines, brochures, and advertisements, as well as personal photographs. For each of his works, Koons has cut and pasted elements from these different sources and collaged them together in various, sometimes unrelated, ways using the advanced technology of the computer. These electronic images are then transformed into traditional oil paintings rendered with photo-realist precision. Koons's paintings recall the advertising iconography of the 1960s Pop artists. Yet by comparison, Koons's work is infused with elements of the Baroque and Rococo, exuding an excess sensuality and effervescent spirit. With his stated artistic intention to communicate with the masses, Koons creates imagery that simultaneously celebrates adult sexual desire and allure, as well as the imaginative universe of childhood pleasures. Koons's new brand of Pop painting cleverly engages other art-historical references as well. In Lips, the free-floating images of succulent lips and a lush-lashed eye recall the Surrealist dream imagery of René Magritte and Salvador Dali, while the surrounding splashes of juice suggest the Abstract Expressionist splatter painting of Jackson Pollock. Indeed, Koons makes direct reference to the latter in another painting; although the title Blue Poles describes the support posts for a roller coaster, it is borrowed from one of the later works by the modern master. Koons's fusion of Pop representations with Surrealist and abstract overtones creates a hybrid of fun and fantasy, forming a body of work that depicts gravity-less forms of dreamlike, ethereal pleasure. In this series, Koons rushes to embrace the future, while keeping one foot firmly in the past. This catalogue was published on the occasion of an exhibition featuring seven new works by the artist commissioned for Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin. Illustrated with full-color reproductions of Jeff Koons's work, this elegant volume includes an interview with the artist by David Sylvester, which offers readers the artist's personal insight into his entire career, as well as an essay by Robert Rosenblum, which provides in-depth analysis of the artist's technique and imagery used in his new paintings.