Jeff Koons: A Retrospective

by Scott Rothkopf, Antonio Damasio (Contribution by), Jeffrey Deitch (Contribution by), Isabelle Graw (Contribution by), Achim Hochdorfer (Contribution by)

Overview

A fresh and engaging look at the controversial work of Jeff Koons, with insightful analyses and illustrations of all of his iconic pieces alongside preparatory works and historical photographs

Examining the breadth and depth of thirty-five years of work by Jeff Koons (b. 1955), one of the most influential and controversial artists of the 20th century, this highly anticipated volume features all of his most famous pieces. In an engaging overview essay, Scott Rothkopf carefully examines the evolution of Koons’ work and his development over the past thirty-five years, offering a fresh scholarly perspective on the artist’s multi-faceted career. In addition, short essays by a wide range of interdisciplinary contributors—from academics to novelists—probe provocative topics such as celebrity and media, markets and money, and technology and fabrication. Also included are preparatory sketches and plans for sculptures and paintings as well as installation photographs that shed light on Koons’ artistic process and trace the development of his work throughout his landmark career.
 
Koons has risen to international fame making art that reimagines and recontextualizes images and objects from popular culture such as vacuum cleaners, basketballs, and balloon animals. Created with painstaking attention to detail by a team of fabricators, these objects raise questions about taste and popular culture, and position Koons as one of the most lauded and criticized artists working today. 


Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Whitney Museum of American Art
(06/27/14–10/19/14)

Centre Pompidou 
(11/26/14–04/27/15)

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
(06/05/15–09/27/15)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300195873
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Series:	Whitney Museum of American Art
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 12.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Scott Rothkopf is the Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Associate Director of Programs at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. 

Editorial Reviews

07/28/2014
In Artforum editor-in-chief Michelle Kuo's prologue to this lavish catalogue for Jeff Koons's touring retrospective, she claims: "We have seen the future, and it is Jeff Koons." While discussions of contemporary art are prone to exaggeration, Koons perhaps earns more than his share of hyperbole and disdain. Happily, the contributors to this volume, edited by Whitney Museum of Art curator Rothkopf, wax rhapsodic about Koons, while recognizing that his work provokes unease in his viewers. The majority of the book is devoted to brilliant reproductions of his iconic work, from his oversize balloon animals to pornographic photos of the artist with his ex-wife. His creations are recognizable by their lavish audacity, and the catalogue's high production values do them justice. Likewise, critics and writers, including novelist Rachel Kushner and art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, successfully address the full range of Koons's aesthetic and cultural concerns. Koons is a ridiculously wealthy artist with considerable media savvy; rather than shy away from such truths, this retrospective faces them head-on. 306 color and 36 b&w illus. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Rothkopf’s clear and coolly measured catalogue introduction must be read by any serious critic of Koons, pro or con."—Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker

"A good primer for this controversial artist."—Lucy Davies, The Daily Telegraph

"Despite his titanic art world status, Jeff Koons has never been the subject of a retrospective, nor of a book this comprehensive. Charting every significant series of works, from basketballs and vacuum cleaners to paintings and pornography to blown-up tchotchkes and balloon animals, along with a wealth of ephemera, the catalogue delivers. Eight pithy texts from a diverse array of academics, writers, scientists, and museum folk (the contributions from novelist Rachel Kushner and Renaissance scholar Alexander Nagel particularly shine) augment Whitney curator Scott Rothkopf’s essay."—Zoë Lescaze, ARTnews

From the Publisher

'A good primer for this controversial artist.'—Lucy Davies, The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph - Lucy Davies

Rothkopf’s clear and coolly measured catalogue introduction must be read by any serious critic of Koons, pro or con.” —Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker

New Yorker - Peter Schjeldahl

09/15/2014
One of artist Jeff Koons's quintessentially exuberant sculptures, an incandescently colored, polychromed-wood simulation of a floral arrangement, graces the cover of this major retrospective catalog assembled by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Many critics and museum visitors would be delighted to accept the bouquet, seeing Koons (b. 1955) as a significant contemporary artist, but just as many might decline, perceiving him as lacking in stature. Curator Rothkopf weighs the opinions both of Koons's champions and his detractors in the text's lead essay, and all of the work's contributors (distinguished curators, critics, art historians, editors, and even a novelist, Rachel Kushner) skillfully negotiate the range of complex reactions to Koons's art, ultimately making the case that his creations should be studied because he pushed forward the boundaries of what art and artists can be and because his art uncannily mirrors our own historical moment. Taken together, the contributors offer a sort of curatorial triangulation, an approach that the Whitney has used well in previous exhibition catalogs. VERDICT The first retrospective catalog of the artist since 1992, this will be a valuable reference source as well as an excellent introduction to Koons for newcomers.—Michael Dashkin, New York

Library Journal