Artist entry numero seven/sculptor # dos(2) Hefe Koons

Artist entry #7/sculptor #2 Senor Jeff (Hefe) Koons

I decided to put Jeff Koons in my Artist statements because, well I have no choice. I'm not familiar with many sculptors and he meets the criteria. Jeff Koons's art is somewhat controversial, art critics are split on his work some love it and some say it is kitsch. I know a lot of people in the art community don't consider him an artist due to the fact that he just takes pop culture object and decides to make them into art and then hires an artist to build it for him. He is in a way like Marcel Duchamp where he uses ready-made objects for art, but he does take the object and do something with it. Jeff did study painting and received his BFA from Maryland College Institute of Art. His work come in a variety of medias, whether it is stainless steel, porcelain he pretty uses all types of media. Jeff found a way to make his mark in the art world by taking normal everyday objects and making them into gigantic art pieces, he kept the properties of the object exactly the same but just made it big. A perfect example of this is "Tulip balloons" (3rd image) they look like a bouquet of flower balloons you would get at a kids birthday party, but they are massive in size and made of coated stainless steel. The work is done so well you cant see any of the welds and the reflective qualities are amazing, it looks like your looking at actual foil balloons. The work is so exact even the indentations on the balloons that form the top of the tulips are flawless and all the edges are so perfectly smooth rounded you would think you were actually looking at balloons.

To me you could consider Jeff an artist, I think other artist are pissed that he is making millions of dollars on art that he has never worked on himself and work has no meaning. Some artist put their heart and soul into a piece and never get anything for it and I think that is where the problem is. I think another reason people don't like his work is because he's kind of an asshole. It would be tough to have all the projects he has going on at once and manage them and have them come out to your vision.

One more thing, I wish I could have the M.J. and bubbles piece, if I did I would put it right in my door way that way every time anyone came into my house they would be forced to look at it and get creeped out.