Jeff Koons:
Q&A
Jeff Koons is that most rare of artists – a household name. VAULT spoke to the artist – one day before the insurrection at the Capitol Building – about his major work Venus (2016-20), featured as part of the NGV Triennial. One of the most significant and influential artists in contemporary history, Koons spoke about finding joy, and how art can bring us to love and hope.
Image credit: Portrait Jeff Koons. Courtesy MasterClass
Hello, Mr Koons! How are you?
Just great. Alison, it’s very nice to speak with you.
I hope you have been keeping well in these terrible, strange times. I have always thought of you as arguably the happiest artist alive. I know, of course, this is an outsider’s assessment, yet you and your works impart this air of great joy – I’m thinking here of iconic series such as Celebration (1993–). 2020 was
a really tough year, and I wonder how can we, in your opinion, find joy now? Can art bring us to joy?
Alison, yes, 2020 was a very tough year, but I think that there is an optimism for the future. I would say that within my own work, I strive for joy because I experience it through everyday life, through feelings and sensations, through other people’s art, I feel it through history, right? When I was younger, I remember going to Philadelphia and coming into contact with the history of the city, seeing the Liberty Bell. On top of Philadelphia City Hall there’s a very large statue of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. It’s a large bronze statue that I believe is about 40 feet tall.
I remember the awe and wonderment that I experienced the first time I went up to the top of City Hall – I was probably, I imagine, around seven years old. Feeling that awe and wonderment, that excitement, that sensation of being 40 stories up in the air, on top of City Hall, and then looking up to this huge bronze sculpture – it ...Subscribe to read this article in full
