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Jeff Koons And The Paradox Of A Superstar's Phenomenon

T he Ko o ns phe no m e no n -- J e f f Ko o ns him se lf , his o bje ct s, and t he discursive re ce pt io n t hat surro unds it all - se e m s grave ly parado xical. D.S. Baker Issue #4, February 19 9 3

Do cum e nt Act io ns

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Jeff Ko o ns is amo ng the mo st co ntro versial and intriguing artists to have emerged in the past decade. Like Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warho l befo re him, he is co ncerned with the transfo rmatio n o f everyday o bjects into art and takes such po st-mo dern issues as high and lo w culture, co ntext, and co mmo dificatio n o f art as the central fo cus o f his wo rk.

From the Nov/Dec issue of At the Modern, the publication of the San Francisco MoMA
It's the mo st impo rtant visual arts exhibitio n in San Francisco this year.

The San Francisco Examiner (12/11/92)

Jeff Ko o ns, the self-pro claimed "mo st written-abo ut artist in the wo rld," no w headlining at the San Francisco Museum o f Mo dern Art, has indubitably attained a certain "star" status. Ho wever, the Koons phenomenon Ko o ns himself, his o bjects, and the discursive receptio n that surro unds it all seems gravely parado xical. This pro blem arises because Ko o ns is made o ut to be a critical co mmentato r in the traditio n o f the Dadaists, a co ntro versial figure in the fo o tsteps o f the avant-garde. Yet, Ko o ns' art histo rical glo ry resides in the fact that he is flat no depth, all surface (even flatter than Warho l). This meaninglessness and banality, if no thing else, is his mo st impo rtant co ntributio n to art. By (re)co ntextualizing Ko o ns' use o f the avant-garde technique o f "appro priatio n" (its twists and turns thro ugh Dada and Warho l), we can see that Ko o ns' specific reco nfiguratio n o f Warho l's Po p, makes him the least likely to be given the status o f critical co mmentato r. Yet time and time again it is insisted that Ko o ns is a fero cio us cultural critic, and o ne that is challenging established catego ries in o rder to sho ck the public into greater sensibilities. Is Ko o ns playing an art trick? Is Ko o ns duping the media? This parado x in the Ko o ns pheno meno n (whichever institutio ns are respo nsible) seems to be a tragedy to the well-meaning spectato r who wants to kno w what's go ing o n, wants to get to the bo tto m o f things. Ho wever, the spectato r may be enticed, enco uraged to give a small, cynical laugh. In this multi-media day and age, o ne can easily be fo o led into laughing by the discursive positioning o f a pheno meno n, the meanings and interpretatio ns that enable the pheno meno n itself. Yet ultimately, with respect to Ko o ns, I do no t think that laughter is intended. The retro spective's co mmentary claims that "Ko o ns' clo sest analo gy is pro bably to be fo und in Warho l" and Warho l's iro nic wit seems to pervade Ko o ns' entire pro ject, the differences are subtle and discrete. It may be useful to see Ko o ns' transgressio n o f Warho l as co mparable, in many respects, to that o f Warho l and his "superstars." At the Facto ry, the superstars paro died Ho llywo o d, with their o wn brand o f divas, queens and sex symbo ls who perfo rmed in Warho l's undergro und films. Mo st impo rtantly, the superstars embo died the

self-pro mo ted stars, who weren't merely acto rs and actresses, but embo died actualizatio n o f their o wn fantasies, "acting" as themselves in Warho l's films (i.e. Trash , Flesh , Bad , etc.). Unlike Warho l, the ailing asexual albino , the superstars were able to be created, transfo rmed by Warho l into reified superstars. The mo vement fro m Warho l to superstar parallels the slight shift in po sitio n which allo ws Ko o ns to transgress Warho l's Po p and take it a step further in o rder to negate the bo undaries between appearance and reality, art and co mmo dity, surface and depth. The po litical/aesthetic strategy o f appro priatio n and its mo del, the Readymade, were invented by the Dadaists earlier this century as a means to demo cratize art. Yet Ko o ns asserts that "he's meeting the needs o f the peo ple." With respect to to day's co mmercial capitalism, his wo rds have a co mpletely different meaning than did either the Dadaists o r Warho ls. Duchamp and the Dadaists used appro priatio n to (re)co ntextualize everyday items in o rder to subvert the wo rld o f autho rized culture and its institutio nalized art (cf. Peter Buerger's Theory of the Avant-Garde ). Breaking do wn the no tio n o f high art and merging it with the filth o n the streets, the Dadaists so ught to sever the ties between artistic pro ductio n and co mmo dity pro ductio n. The o utspo ken Dadaists presented their o bjects with a furo r, and became the signs o f the threat o f the fall o f bo urgeo is capitalism. Appro priatio n as a critical strategy held the po tential fo r critical iro ny and the po ssibility fo r the negatio n o f the co mmo dity, with respect to the distance created between Dada and co mmo dity so ciety. In Warho l's case, this distance fro m co mmo dity so ciety is pro blematized. Instead o f claiming to stand o utside, Warho l tried to assert that he was ho mo geno us with co mmercial culture. The preeminent Po p artist to yed with this distance, pro mo ting an ambiguo us relatio n to co mmo dity so ciety and the institutio ns o f art. He was suspended between Dada's iso latio n, transcendence and critical negativity and the encro achment o f co rpo rate-do minated co mmercial culture. He wanted lo ts o f mo ney and fame, stro ve to use industrial pro ductio n techniques at the Facto ry, to merge co mmercial techniques and subject matter with the institutio ns o f high art. Warho l "claimed" to be a co mmercial artist and to speak fro m the vo ice o f the unassuming everyday co mmercial artist witho ut the pretense that there was a deep meaning o r "so mething mo re." If yo u want to kno w all abo ut Andy Warho l, just lo o k at the surface o f my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's no thing behind it.

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Andy Warhol
Yet as much as Warho l appeared to be o ne with the lo gic o f co nsumptio n, there was always a distance (and deep meaning) which co nstituted the territo ry fo r critical iro ny. Warho l was bo th the prince o f co mmercial art and upto wn celebrity as well as the "bete no ire" who cultivated the do wnto wn undergro und drug/sex scene. Co nsequently, the meanings generated aro und Warho l in the 6 0 s were ambivalent (cf. Andreas Huyssen's After the Great Divide ). In Germany, his appro priatio ns o f Brillo Bo xes, Campbell's So up cans and publicity stills were tho ught to be a critical co mmentary o n American culture; in New Yo rk, they were tho ught to be mere co pies, o r a ho ax. Warho l's internal co ntradictio n was that as a co mmercial artist/advertiser, he ultimately used "appro priatio n" to subvert the o fficial tenets o f po st-war painting, the New Yo rk scho o l o f abstract expressio nism, and the fo rmalist critique that surro unded it. Twenty-five years after Warho l, Ko o ns seems to represent a third stage o f appro priatio n. His use o f strategy, ho wever, is in a very different co ntext, thus giving it play within a co mpletely different co nstellatio n o f meanings. Ko o ns, by stepping in and actually being (in real life) the well-spo ken, go o d-lo o king sex symbo l media superstar that the awkward Warho l co uld never have been makes a decisive step to ward radically altering Warho l's po sitio n. Ko o ns' po sitio n eradicates the depth and distance fro m co mmo dity culture. As Superstar, as real capitalist (a fo rmer sto ckbro ker), as real playbo y with sex o bject (see Ko o ns' series Made in Heaven ), Ko o ns inverts Warho l's

as real capitalist (a fo rmer sto ckbro ker), as real playbo y with sex o bject (see Ko o ns' series Made in Heaven ), Ko o ns inverts Warho l's po sitio n. Instead o f being the alienated artist who mimics co mmo dity relatio ns, Ko o ns himself beco mes an authentic reified creatio n, a Superstar. In do ing so , he negates any distance fro m celebrity and the culture industry. Where Warho l co uld merely declare that he was all surface, it is Ko o ns who o fficially beco mes ho mo geneo us with co mmo dity so ciety pure surface. Rather than making art fro m so me as-yet-uninco rpo rated enclave, Ko o ns is making art fro m within the structures o f institutio nal art, as part and parcel o f the culture industry. It may no t be stretching it to say that at heart Ko o ns is a uto pian, even a religio us, artist.
Untitled B ad Links Left Business Observer Stephen Marc BlogLeft: Critical Interventions

San Francisco Examiner (12/11/92)

The Ko o ns o bjects, like everyday o bjects, lo ng to be given deep meaning, but all attempts are futile. The Examiner says that "he is ho lding up a mirro r to sho w what America lo o ks like by gro ssly imitating the shallo wness, perversity and emptiness o f co mmercial so ciety." The keywo rd in this quo te, I think, is "imitate". Ko o ns' mirro r is but a ho llo wed reflectio n, ro bbed o f all meaning. Ko o ns' (re)co ntextualizatio ns o f cute rabbits, Michael Jackso n, alco ho l ads and vacuum cleaners serve to remo ve these o bjects fro m their meaningful(less) everyday co ntext by placing them in a museum, the autho rized space fo r meaninglessness in co mmo dity culture. Ko o ns appro priates no t to reinvigo rate the meanings o f the meaningless everyday, but rather to reverse this, to remo ve the meaning fro m the everyday. Unfo rtunately, this experience beco mes tainted if we've had any co ntact with the pheno mena o f mass media spectacles and Ko o ns himself. Ko o ns' readymade vacuity go es unmo dified; what we see is really what we get. I believe that I'm go ing to be a majo r, majo r player in end-o f-the-century art. But I'm no t really an ego tist. I was bo rn clever and I'm trying to reveal this to o ther peo ple so they can enjo y life as fully as I am.

Jeff Koons
The Ko o ns perso na must also be understo o d to lie o n the surface. He is a devilishly handso me white sto ckbro ker-playbo y turned to art, and he makes little claim fo r being anything mo re. Witho ut the depth o f an o utside po sitio n, Ko o ns' wo rds must be understo o d as no ne o ther than the vacuo us and co mmo nplace wo rds o f a co nfident bo urgeo is entrepreneur. Similarly, the superstars Candy Darling o r Ondine wo uld speak fo r Warho l abo ut art, po litics, etc. in his interviews. No t kno wing the larger co ntext o f these to pics, they co uld readily pro ffer straightfo rwardly unreflective co mments. As a superstar, Ko o ns is naively unsuspecting o f his co mplex po sitio n within histo rical institutio ns. Ko o ns, po sitio ned as sto ckbro ker/entrepreneur, remo ves the last vestiges o f depth, co nceding his histo rical status co mpletely to co mmercial culture. No t trying to be a wo rld-histo rical artist, Ko o ns' impo rtance resides in his co mplete manifestatio n o f the slick surface. Ko o ns is no t explo iting the media fo r avant-garde purpo ses. He's in caho o ts with the media. He has no message. It's selfadvertisement, and I find that repulsive.

Rosalind Krauss
I do n't mind having Ko o ns try to put o ne o ver o n us, but is seems dangero us (if no t disastro us to the state o f mass spectato rship) that the disco urses and interpretatio ns surro unding the art wo rld play Ko o ns straight, granting him depth as a critical co mmentato r. The interpretatio ns, meanings and histo ries which surro und and seem to preexist the Ko o ns retro spective co nstitute a po tentially hazardo us po sitio n fo r the well-meaning spectato r. In do ing so , the Ko o ns exhibitio n and the pheno mena surro unding it bring "cynical spectato rship" to the Bay Area. The tendency "allo ws o ne to be simultaneo usly bo th abo ve it all and co mplicit with it," while allo wing us to "feel like we're in o n the jo ke, rather than being the butt o f it" (Jo e Sartelle, "Cynicism and the Electio n," Bad Subjects , Oct. 19 9 2). In
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o rder to survey the indeterminate meanings surro unding the status o f art and the art wo rld, we must lo o k beyo nd the media's exaltatio n o f Ko o ns. His meaninglessness o ught no t to be taken to o serio usly; fo r tho se who truly care abo ut the state o f American culture, the Ko o ns pheno meno n may co me as a slap in the face.

D.S. Baker is an artist/student in Oakland.

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