Jeff Koons

born 1955

Biography

Jeffrey Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist known for working with popular culture subjects and his reproductions of banal objects, such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. He lives and works in both New York City and his hometown of York, Pennsylvania.

His works have sold for substantial sums, including at least one world record auction price for a work by a living artist. On November 12, 2013, Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange) sold at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York City for US$58.4 million, above its high US$55 million estimate, becoming the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction. The price topped Koons' previous record of US$33.7 million and the record for the most expensive living artist, held by Gerhard Richter, whose 1968 painting, Domplatz, Mailand, sold for US$37.1 million at Sotheby's on May 14, 2013. Balloon Dog (Orange) was one of the first of the Balloon dogs to be fabricated, and had been acquired by Greenwich collector Peter Brant in the late 1990s.

Critics are sharply divided in their views of Koons. Some view his work as pioneering and of major art-historical importance. Others dismiss his work as kitsch, crass, and based on cynical self-merchandising. Koons has stated that there are no hidden meanings in his works, nor any critiques.

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Artworks

Left Right

Jeff Koons Made in Heaven

1989

Jeff Koons Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Two Dr J Silver Series, Spalding NBA Tip-Off)

1985

Jeff Koons New Hoover Convertibles, Green, Red, Brown, New Shelton Wet/Dry 10 Gallon Displaced Doubledecker

1981–7

Jeff Koons Bourgeois Bust - Jeff and Ilona

1991

Jeff Koons Art Magazine Ads (Art in America)

1988–9

Jeff Koons Winter Bears

1988

Jeff Koons Encased - Four Rows

1983–93

Jeff Koons Caterpillar (with chains)

2002

See all 21

Artist as subject

Left Right

Jeff Koons Made in Heaven

1989

Jeff Koons Bourgeois Bust - Jeff and Ilona

1991

Jeff Koons Art Magazine Ads (Art in America)

1988–9

Jeff Koons Art Magazine Ads (Art Forum)

1988–9

Jeff Koons Art Magazine Ads (Flash Art)

1988–9

Jeff Koons Art Magazine Ads (Arts)

1988–9

Film and audio

Watch

Unlock Art: Great Double Acts

Rock band The Kills jump on a tandem to explore the art of collaboration

Watch

3 Minute Wonder: Jeff Koons, Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank

Directed by Mike Figgis. Produced by Red Mullet and Tate Media

Watch

Pop Life: Opening party

The people who helped to produce Tate Modern's Pop Life exhibition celebrate on the opening night in September 2009.

Watch

Pop Life: Jeff Koons Rabbit

To celebrate Tate Modern’s Pop Life exhibition, a giant 53-foot helium balloon by Jeff Koons was inflated in Covent ...

TateShots

Jeff Koons: 'Art is a vehicle of acceptance'

Artistic industry in the artist's studio

Features

Left Right

Look Closer

Jeff Koons: Banality, Decadence and Easyfun

From advertising and commerce to social-mobility and youth culture, explore some of the themes behind Jeff Koons’s art

Essay

Art and Pornography

Tread the line between creativity and sex as we explore what separates these two terms

Art Term

Vitrine

A large, glass cabinet used for displaying art objects

Art Term

Neo-geo

Short for neo-geometric conceptualism, the term neo-geo came into use in the early 1980s in America to describe the work ...

Art Term

Kitsch

Kitsch is the German word for trash, and is used in English to describe particularly cheap, vulgar and sentimental forms ...

Art Term

Appropriation

Appropriation in art and art history refers to the practice of artists using pre-existing objects or images in their art ...

Tate Etc

Welcome to his situation...: Tino Sehgal's Turbine Hall commission

Arthur Lubow

The work of the British-born German artist Tino Sehgal exists solely as a set of choreographed gestures and spoken instructions ...

Security guards at the opening of Magritte and Contemporary Art.

Tate Etc

In the freewheeling world of the mind: René Magritte II

John Baldessari , Eleanor Antin , Thomas Demand and Jeff Koons

The Belgian Surrealist remains an influential figure among contemporary artists. Tate Etc.’s Mariko Finch spoke to four admirers. One ...

Tate Etc

Who paints bread better than Dalí?: Salvador Dalí III

Jeff Koons

‘God save the King!’ was one of Dalí's last, typically provocative, public pronouncements. Jeff Koons explains how meeting Dalí ...

Tate Etc

Lives of the artists

Alison M. Gingeras

Flamboyant. Extravagant. Megalomanic. Alcoholic. Sexually obsessed. Manic-depressive. How important is persona in understanding an artist’s practice? By Alison Gingeras