Jeff Koons

Jeff Koon’s was born on January 21st 1955 and he is a contemporary American artist.  He is known for his reproductions of balloon animals that are produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces.  He lives and works in New York City and his hometown York, Pennsylvania.

Jeff Koon’s' work has sold for a large amount of money.  The largest sum known to be paid for a work by Koon’s is "Balloon flower" which was sold for $25,765,204 at Christie's London on June 30th, 2008 in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale. 

There are many arguments that Jeff Koon’s work is based on “cynical self merchandising” even though he states that there are no hidden meanings in his works.  While other people view his work as pioneering and of major art historical importance.

After watching the video in class about Jeff Koon’s I am a little skeptical about his artwork myself.

Jeff has a lot of people who work for him.  As we can see it takes a long time for him to finish a painting or another piece of artwork.  From the video it looks like he has a bunch of people working really hard on whatever his next idea is, while he is shown sitting down and talking in clean clothes and not getting his own hands dirty!  Sure he went to art school, and knows a great deal about art.  He creates his projects on the computer but even one of his employees said in the video that he hasn't been hands on involved with a project in years. Jeff Koon’s may have the idea of his work, but he isn't doing any of the lifting or painting.  I think its a little ridiculous that they have to be SO detailed in their paintings that they have to match up so many different numbers and colors. 

I do like his paintings and other works but there is no way that I think his art is worth such a great deal of money like I mentioned earlier.  I also think its a little strange that Jeff Koon’s just sits on the computer and doesn't get involved like the rest of the people who work for him do.  Basically he just gives the idea but doesn't actually create the artwork.  He may give the main goal for the artwork but the people who are actually bringing the artwork to life are the ones who should get the credit for the work.  Jeff Koon’s gives guidance and tells people what he wants his artwork to look like but at the end of the day he isn't creating it!  How does that make any sense?  If somebody writes lyrics for a singer the singer who sings the song will get the fame and credit.  But there wouldn’t be a super star if there weren’t somebody writing the lyrics for them to sing.  I think that Jeff Koon’s does deserve credit as an artist, but I feel like there are so many people that are involved in his projects that do not receive the credit that they deserve.