No, it's not a Legoland exhibit, it's a 114-foot yacht designed by Jeff Koons and owned by Greek mogul/art collector Dakis Joannou. The Guilty's (yes, that's the name) headache-inducing color scheme and pattern are sure to counteract the tranquil effects of bobbing around on the ocean, but who cares when you can broadcast that your yacht cost so much more than anyone else's? [HighSnobiety]
The anonymous American Apparel ad remixer has consistently shown-along with a love for pornography and a belief in the dildo-ness of AA boss Dov Charney-a marked devotion to actual "art." We're not dealing with just another vandal here; we're dealing with a vandal who may have gone to art school at some point. This valuable education enables not only the clean, porny line drawings on the ads, but now, a new frontier: a reference to pop artist Jeff Koons. And a nude woman! I don't think it's exaggerating the case to call this fake postermaker an educator. The seminal work: Jeff Koons' "Equilibrium":
A 14-year long custody battle between the uber-wealthy king of kitsch and his former wife La Cicciolina, the peroxided blonde ex-porn star and ex-politician, has finally reached a climax. The couple's 16-year-old son, Ludwig, lives in Italy with his mother, who claimed in court in March that Koons owed her $2.3 million in child support. He, however, insists that he's always been denied access to Ludwig, and Cicciolina—real name Ilona Staller—may go to prison this week if a court agrees. Meanwhile, a Jeff Koons "Balloon Flower" sculpture is expected to fetch more than $23 million when it goes to auction at Christie's in London on June 30th.
The Google homepage today features a photo of chrome tulips by famous artist Jeff Koons. Google has hired a bunch of artists and designers to create themes as a way of promoting the iGoogle homepage. And their choices read like a veritable "who's who" of name-brand, commercial types who create work that isn't particularly daring or challenging.
Jeff Koons is one of the most notable—or profitable, at least—contemporary blue-chip American artists. In 1977 Jeff Koons left Pennsylvania for New York to pursue a career as an artist. Before attracting attention in the mid-80s, he first worked at MoMA and then took a Wall Street job to pay the bills. By the end of the decade, he'd become an art world sensation thanks to his stainless-steel bunnies, basketballs floating in glass aquariums, and porcelain homages to Michael Jackson. Koons's career took a tumble during the mid-1990s. With the production costs of his large-scale sculptures spiraling out of his control, the artist nearly went bankrupt. The IRS placed a lien on his business in 1997 and he was forced to fire most of his staff. Koons bowed out of the scene for a few years, returning at the end of the '90s with fresh financing (from Larry Gagosian) just in time for the art boom, which has since raised the prices of his works to record levels. To satisfy demand, Koons now operates from a vast, Annabelle Selldorf-designed studio on the West Side, where more than 80 trained assistants help him pump out pieces using a "paint-by-numbers" system that ensures they all look like they were created by the same hand.
Jeff Koons' sculpture, "Diamond (Blue)," a huge-ass, seven foot wide fake diamond made of stainless steel, sold for only $11.8 mil at Christie's Post-War And Contemporary Art Evening Sale last night. Sadly, its sale fell short of expectations—they were hoping for $12 to $20 million. (Thank God for Rothko. He always fetches a high price!) [NYT]
