For a moment, let’s look at the work of Jeff Koons in its artistic and cultural context, separating it from issues having to do with production, financing, promotion, and reception—for the latter have received ample attention in the wake of the artist’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. What matters in the end is the work. What is it about, and what has been achieved through it? Koons and his work unleash passionate reactions, and because of that, not enough effort is directed toward making sense of the actual artworks as embodiments of ideas and sensations, and as systems of forms in space. I used the clause “for a moment” because Koons himself renders such an approach necessarily incomplete. He has worked hard to craft his image as an integral part of his oeuvre. After all, he has depicted himself as a well-proportioned and well-endowed nude and devoted his work to his obsessions…see the entire article in the print version of March’s Sculpture magazine
