Jeff Koons

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1955 age 0

   Born

2. 2008 age 53

   CreditMilk

• VGVictor Garber1 title
• ESEric Stoltz1 title
• JBJosh Brolin1 title
• DEDanny Elfman1 title
• JFJames Franco1 title
• BCBruce Cohen1 title
• DJDan Jinks1 title
• HSHaris Savides1 title
• GSGus Van Sant1 title
• EHEmile Hirsch1 title

• Influenced by

  • AWAndy Warhol

Nothing recorded for: Spouse, Partner, Parents, Children, Siblings, Studied under, Taught.

• 
  Photo:Bengt ObergerCC BY-SA 4.0

• I try to be a truthful artist and I try to show a level of courage. I enjoy that. I’m a messenger.

  Jeff Koons, CC BY-SA 4.0

• The media, the galleries, the collectors – it's all very chaotic actually. The artworld doesn't have this defined corporate structure that people imagine. Of course there's a system of sorts. This person will talk to that person and somebody else will pass it on to somebody else... you can trace a line of power of some kind. But its nothing like as clear and set as people think. And this chaos leads to a lot of insecurity. It's only after an artist has achieved some independence from it that he MODERN PAINTERS can really stand up to the collectors and the dealers and do his art.

  Jeff Koons, CC BY-SA 4.0

• My work will use everything that it can to communicate. It will use any trick; it'll do anything — absolutely anything — to communicate and to win the viewer over. Even the most unsophisticated people are not threatened by it; they aren't threatened that this is something they have no understanding of. They can look at it and they can participate with it. And also somebody who has been very highly educated in art and deals with more esoteric areas can also view it and find that the work is open as far as being something that wants to add more to our culture. The work wants to meet the needs of' the people. It tries to bring down all the barriers that block people From their culture. that shield and hide them. It tells them to embrace the moment instead of always feeling that they're being indulged by things that they do not participate in. It tells them to believe in something and to eject their will. The idea of St. John and baptism right now is that there are greater things to come.

  Jeff Koons, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Abstraction and luxury are the guard dogs of the upper class. The upper class wants people to have ambition and gumption because, if you do, you will participate and you'll move through society into a different class structure.

  Jeff Koons, CC BY-SA 4.0

• The basic story line (in my new work) is about art leaving the realm of the artist, when the artist loses control of the work. It’s defined basically by two ends. One would be Louis XIV — that if you put art in the hands of an aristocracy or monarch, art will become reflective of ego and decorative — and on the other end of the scale would be Bob Hope — that if you give art to the masses, art will become reflective of mass ego and also decorative.

  Jeff Koons, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Art to me is a humanitarian act, and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to affect mankind, to make the word a better place (this is not a cliche!).

  Jeff Koons, CC BY-SA 4.0