Let the summer frenzy begin for Jeff Koons in New York City. Hailed as one of the most influential (and controversial) cult artists of our time, Koons broke boundaries of art and mass culture with his larger-than-life sculptures and collaborations with pop icons like filmmaker Gus Van Sant, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and of course mama monster, Lady Gaga. For the first time in New York, Koons’ seminal works from his 35-year career fill the entire Whitney Museum of American Art, making this a landmark retrospective for the visual artist and a grand finale for the museum in the current Breuer Building.
“It’s really wonderful to have an exhibition in, kind of, my hometown here in New York,” said Koons to Blouin ARTINFO. ”I think the Whitney is the perfect platform for my work to have a dialogue with a young generation of artists.”
From the highly disputed nude images of him and his wife Ilona Stallar from the 1990 "Made In Heaven" series to his boisterous "Balloon Dog," the retrospective takes a chronological approach with more than 150 works scattered throughout the museum floors and outdoor sculpture court. Apart from Koons’ classic works, he’s also presenting for the first time his latest creation “Play-Doh,” a ten-foot polychromed aluminium sculpture that took him almost 20 years to make.
In conjunction with the opening of the retrospective, Koons also debuted his floral “Split-Rocker” sculpture in Rockerfeller Center. Presented by the Gagosian Gallery, Public Art Fund, and Tishman Speyer, the 37-foot high piece features more than 50,000 flowering plants. It was first presented in 2000 in Palais des Papes in Avignon and its also in the collection of the Glenstone Private Museum in Potomac, Maryland. Over the summer, the flowers will continue to grow and visitors can watch the sculpture bloom to a flora-mania, giving a touch of vibrancy to the otherwise concrete jungle of Midtown. “It’s a loss of control,” told Koons. “That’s really one of the beautiful things about this sculpture; You give up control to nature and the piece is going to become really vibrant.”
You can read more about the "Great Koonsian Adventure" HERE.
The retrospective is open through October 19 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, and “Jeff Koons: Split-Rocker” by the Public Art Fund is on view through September 12 at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
