Winter Bears, 1988 - The Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann Collection
© Jeff Koons Photo: Jeff Koons Studio, New York
New Hoover Convertible, 1980 Rubell Family Collection, Miami
© Jeff Koons - Photo: Jeff Koons Studio / Douglas M. Parker Studio, Los Angeles
Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988, The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica
© Jeff Koons - Photo: Jeff Koons Studio / Douglas M. Parker Studio, Los Angeles
Tulips, 1995–98 European private collection, © Jeff Koons, Photo: Jeff Koons Studio / Tom Powel
Stacked, 1988 - Private collection, © Jeff Koons
Photo: Jeff Koons Studio / Jim Strong, New York
***
The Fondation Beyeler is
presenting the first exhibition ever devoted by a Swiss museum to the
American artist Jeff Koons (b. 1955). Koons, likely the best-known
living artist, has for decades been causing a furore with the
combination of popular and high culture that informs his art.
Our extensive presentation focuses on three central series of works – The New, Banality and Celebration – which represent crucial stages in Koons’s development and lead to the nucleus of his thinking and creative activity. The New
comprises the ready-made-like cleaning appliances of his early period,
symbols of newness and purity. Banality includes those traditionally
crafted sculptures in porcelain and wood which have since become
(post-)modern icons. Finally, in the Celebration series, on
which Koons has been working for almost twenty years, appear high-gloss
steel sculptures of unique material perfection, and large-format
paintings in which the artist celebrates childhood in a veritably
baroque way. Koons’s equally spectacular and subtle works are repeatedly
concerned with themes such as innocence, beauty, sexuality and
happiness. These reflect his conception of an art that is accessible to
every viewer.
Jeff Koons
13.5. – 2.9.2012
Fondation Beyeler, Basel
Private collectionBalloon Flower (Blue), 1995–2000 Installation in Berower Park,
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel © Jeff Koons Photo: Mark Niedermann
Split-Rocker, 2000 - In
Berower Park, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, 2012, with the support
of JTI as well as Simone and Peter Forcart-Staehelin, InCentive Asset
Management AG Collection of the artist © Jeff Koons - Photo: Andri Pol
