Book Description
The Post-Pop superstar: An in-depth study of Koons's entire oeuvre to date Limited to 1,500 numbered copies, each signed by Jeff Koons From kinky to kitsch to conceptual, Jeff Koons's art is anything but conformist. Since he stirred up the art world establishment in the 1980s with his unapologetic basketball sculptures and stainless steel toy blow-ups, Koons has been known as somewhat of a bad boy?a reputation he confirmed in the early 90s via works depicting him having sex with then-wife Cicciolina, the Italian porn star-cum-politician. Following this torrid phase, he changed gears to produce the gargantuan Puppy, the 43-foot tall floral terrier that now resides at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Koons's exploitation of the banal, in the aggrandizement and/or embodiment of kitsch and pop imagery, has become his trademark; detractors may delight in their naysaying, but Koons's work commands millions at auction and his position at the forefront of contemporary art is indisputable. This exhaustive monograph begins with a biographical essay by Interview magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Sischy that puts his work into context and tells his personal story, as well as a text by Eckhard Schneider's analyzing Koons from a European perspective. Arranged in chronological chapters by work groups, the main body of the book features art historian and critic Katy Siegel's detailed analyses alongside hundreds of large-format images tracing Koons's career from 1979 to today. Rounding off the book are an extended bibliography and a lavishly illustrated biography. Fans of Jeff Koons's work will find in this publication not only a sumptuous book-object, but also the most comprehensive study of theartist's work ever published. ... Read more

Book Description
The man who enshrined a Hoover vacuum cleaner, who suspended a basketball in a fish tank half filled with water, who created a life-size polychromed wooden replica of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles, who transferred his sex life with his then-wife, Italian porn star Ilona Staller (aka Cicciolina), onto canvas, and who made a monumental topiary sculpture in the shape of a puppy, is here given a mini-retrospective in the form of a book. Jeff Koons: Pictures 1980-2002 focuses primarily on the formation and development of Koons's paintings, but, given that he considers his early sculptures to be "three-dimensional paintings," this limit need hardly be considered medium-restrictive. Thomas Kellein's extended interview provides a walloping good tale told by the artist himself. In it, Koons remembers his childhood drawing lessons, his first sale (his father had a decorating business and showroom where he would display and sell his 11-year-old son's art), his experiences at art school, his courtship with ex-wife Cicciolina (they fell in love after he hired her to make his Made in Heaven series), and how the birth of his son inspired his Celebration series, all the while sharing his philosophies on art. Organized chronologically and with an extended biography and bibliography, Pictures presents each of the main works from Koons's painting series from 1980 to the present. ... Read more

Book Description
Published to accompany an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Jasper Johns to Jeff Koons presents contemporary art from the private collections of Eli and Edythe Broad, which are among the most important in the world. Featuring works by 22 significant artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Cindy Sherman, this handsome volume addresses major movements such as American Neo-Dada and Pop, and German Neo-Expressionism, as well as art of the 1980s and current works from California.

An interview with the Broads and scholarly texts addressing important aspects of the collections situate the 160 full-color plates in art-historical context. ... Read more

Book Description
The man who enshrined a hoover vacuume and a basketball, who created a life-sized polychromed wood replica of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles, who transfered his sex life with Italian porn star wife Ilona Staller onto canvas, and who made a monumental topiary sculpture in the shape of a puppy, is back. After a seven-year hiatus from the public eye, bad boy Jeff Koons returns in this comprehensive and overdue survey of his work of the past five years. Three elaborate, highly-produced series are presented, including the joyously effusive "Celebration," an ambitious body of 16 photo-realist paintings and 20 stainless steel sculptures that draw upon the symbols and objects associated with the observance of life's festive rituals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Wittgenstein = Greenburg ...?!?!!??? !
Isn't post-modernisim about reinturpreting existing ideas?
Actually I'd like to know what IS in this book:

It seems to be written in German, English and French.
_ (I'm not too interested in what Mr JK has to say anyway. I usually think Koons' work is intresting by itself without the insightful blaggerganda that foggs up the whole meaning/intent thing. In his case it gets pretentious; it's just better not to know.)

It is 132 pages, too short to afford my $29 right now -- but considering...

As the cover suggests it is likely a photoshoot of a show cica 2001/02. This means it is a lot of large scale stainless steel sculptures amounst smaller steel wall mounts and several really happy paintings.

I'm guessing its a nice book as it is from a fine press. I bet the images look great. But... I don't know?
Personally I'd rather it be an overview of Koon's paintings from that era.

...and also, Koons is like Duchamp? He more like Corbet?! Showin' people the way things is/are.

anyway.

How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life (Wittgenstein)
There is a single idea that permeates Koons work. This idea is neither good, nor original, nor indeed - since it has been 70 years since Duchamps "Fountain" - particularly exciting. If there were a "Ladybird book of Modern Art", Jeff's saccharine,'easyfun' work would be that book.Koons art-as-commodity schitck would be more convincing if the buying public had to decide. His commodities failas commodities - their status as art, is, of course guaranteed, since (see Duchamp) he has told us it is so.Show me one more Scots Terrier made of flowers and I shall reach for my Uzi in a frenzy of post-modern criticism

try to make something good for once.
most of koons work is just duchamps idea repeated in several different forms.

pornography and Art - can they live together???
Pornography - Erotic Art is only few of his works! but takes big place in every reader mind!! (and please don't tell me u buy Playboy for the articles...)Jeff Koons decided to expose himself and his intimic life. Heis no longer takes his wife and show HER nudity! but expose himself aswell! he makes us think about the thin line between Pornography and Art!and he defenatly do it in a wondergul gentle way! Have fun and don't feelguilty forenjoying the regular Art inside the book! ... Read more

Amazon.com
Pop master Jeff Koons offers up a glittery vision of a world distilled from media images and exploded onto canvas. The collage-like paintings in Koons's Easyfun-Ethereal series combine such bizarrely varied items as cold-cut sandwiches with smiley faces, women's manicured feet in fancy shoes, gooey pastries, and landscaped backdrops. Food and female sexual symbols figure prominently in this series of paintings, flying pieces of canned corn layered with floating red mouths and shiny eyelids. And while the erotic nature of food has a long history, e.g. tales of aphrodisiacs like oysters, there is something unnerving about the sexualization of Cheerios and melted American cheese. The book includes an essay by art critic Robert Rosenblum expounding on the references embedded in Koons's work. Rosenblum discusses pop imagery taken from childhood objects and art historical influences ranging from baroque and rococo to pop, abstract expressionism, and surrealism. An interview with Koons himself reveals some of his more personal relationships with his process and work. For Jeff Koons fans this is a must-have. --J.P. Cohen Book Description
For his recent series of work entitled Easy Fun-Ethereal, Jeff Koons employs new computer technology to merge populist icons into desktop collages, which he then transforms into traditional oil paintings rendered with photorealist precision. Drawn from glossy magazines and advertisements, the imagery includes smiley-faced sandwiches, spiraling roller coasters, succulent lips and abstract juice splashes. These hybrids of fun and fantasy simultaneously celebrate childhood pleasures and adult sexual desire: in keeping with Koons's stated intention to "communicate with the masses," the cheerful works are accessible to all. Accompanying an exhibition of seven large-scale paintings commissioned for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, this lively volume features 40 full-color reproductions. Art historian David Sylvester's interview with Koons puts forth the artist's perspective on his career to date, while Robert Rosenblum's essay provides an in-depth analysis of the technique and imagery employed in EasyFun-Ethereal. ... Read more

Book Description
What a lush garden! Imagine the berserk beds that could sprout Koons' polychromed wood begonias next to Warhol's Matisse-adrift-on-Monet silkscreened petunias. This smart volume plants Koons' mostly sculptural exploration of the flower motif alongside a history of Warhol's serialized prints and drawings of the same from the 50s, 60s and 70s. ... Read more

Book Description
Urinals, vacuum cleaners, basketballs, glass sheetslivestock? This study of key moments in the history of ready-made and object-based art features Damien Hirst (London), Gerhard Merz (Munich), Jeff Koons (New York) and their shared historical point of reference, Marcel Duchamp (Paris and New York, 1887-1968). Recently a poll of 500 British critics called Duchamp's 1917 Fountain the most influential Modern artwork ever created. Even more recently, a man assaulted it with a hammer at the Centre Pompidou, confirming that, nearly a century later, emotions are still running high. Object-based art, which grew into a major twentieth-century trend and continues today, took its cue from the ready-made, and Re-Object explores the continuation and transformation of both lines in contemporary artistic practice, via large-format photographs and analytical essays on the artists. ... Read more

Book Description
Description: "When we were making the 5 Deaths paintings, with the car upside down and the people underneath, Andy asked, "Are they still alive?" as if the accident had actually occurred in front of us." --Gerard MalangaWithin Warhol's Death and Disaster series, the so-called Car Crashes comprise the most numerous and diverse set of images. As Gerard Malanga writes in his accompanying essay, "We would return to this silkscreen again and again for several months; in effect, the first painting repeated many times over, this initiating Andy's serial imagery on separate identically shaped canvases, and anticipating the Flower paintings to come." The book also includes a contemporary interview between Malanga and Jeff Koons as well as a reprint of an interview between Malanga and Warhol from 1963. ... Read more

Book Description
Drawing from such disciplines as anthropology, sociology, economics, art criticism, and travel writing, Universal Experience is both a sizeable illustrated catalogue of the exhibition at the MCA, Chicago and a companion to the experience of contemporary travel and tourism. This volume draws on the proliferation of research surrounding the social, geographic, and cultural dimensions of mobility and outputs this information as an anthology of articles, essays, and excerpts. The primary focus of the exhibition, however, is on artworks created by a group of international visual artists who create work in response to travel among multiple cultures--both high and low, and local and foreign. While serving as a "travel guide" to the latest sociological and political research and commentary on tourism and travel, Universal Experience also features a compelling mix of text and more than 170 images in an engaging format that will appeal to high scholars and popular audiences alike. Artists range from well knowns like Rem Koolhaas, Andy Warhol, Vito Acconci, Jeff Koons, and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, to emerging artists such as Franz Ackermann, Mathias Muller, Shirana Shahbazi, Yukata Sone, Pascale Marthine Tayou, and Pi tr Uklanski. Complimenting and illuminating the works of these artists is a collection of written works by Francesco Bonami, Carol Becker, Alain de Boton, Nancy Specter, Susan Sontag, Lucy Lippard, Robert Fitzpatrick and others. ... Read more

Book Description
America's famous teenage stalkers of stupidity are back! From the authors of You May Not Tie an Alligator to a Fire Hydrant, here is a collection of 101 of the dumbest product warnings you'll ever see.

The infamous 1994 McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit has spawned a veritable industry of "hot" warnings, from Kellogg's Pop-Tarts admonition that "[i]f pastry is overheated, frosting/filling can become extremely hot and could cause burns" to the Black Cat Fireworks label: "Caution: flammable. Do not put in mouth." If, on the other hand, you manage to escape the heat with a trip to the beach, be warned that a twenty-inch beach ball is "NOT a lifesaving device." Kids (and maybe even parents) might be forgiven, however, for thinking that Mr. Bubbles Body Wash for Kids of All Ages would be okay to use if they missed the warning label: "Caution. Keep out of reach of young children."

In the brave new world of technology, users frustrated by the gobbledygook of users' manuals will be relieved that their warning labels at least make sense: the Sun StarOffice End User License Agreement warns users that "software is not designed, licensed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility," while the SGI IRIS Indigo Workstation manual tells you, "Don't dangle the mouse by its cable or throw the mouse at coworkers." And for those who just can't quite figure out what to do with some of their new purchases, this might help: "Use Gold Dial as you would ordinary soap" explains the Dial soap label.

Compiled by Jeff Koon and Andy Powell, this hilarious collection features the best contributions from the hundreds of thousands of fans of their Web sites, www.dumblaws.com and www.dumbwarnings.com, and forty-two original drawings by illustrator Tim Carroll.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Short, Cute
This book offers a few laughs and memorable Warning Labels, but is too short to really be enjoyable. Some of the Labels are cute, and you can spend time wondering who actaully did some of the ridiculous stuff in there, but the book ends far too soon. You get about 30 good lables out of the 101, that's about it. I read through it in about 20 minutes, then gave it as a gift the next day.

Cute, but that's about it
We all know that there is a plethora of items out there with ridiculous warning labels on them.Everything from the hair dryer that warns you not to use it while in the shower to the contraceptive jelly that warns against ingestion.This is the litigious nature of our society.Some of the warnings in this book are truly funny, a few will get a chuckle out of you, but most are just kind of blah.More fun is to go out and find the ludicrous warnings yourself and then try to imagine the person/people to whom these warnings are directed.It will likely make you wonder how the human race has survived this long and just how much longer we can make it.

Get it from the library, if you must get it..
I borrowed this book from the library expecting a lot more. Too much more, maybe. It reads like one of those meditation-a-day style books with a meditation (dumb label) on each page and really isn't very funny. Sure, there were a few good cracks on really dumb labels, but for the mostpart I felt that the authors were far reaching into labels that had every right to be attached to the particular product. I found myself thinking.. "What's wrong with that?" and "I understand why they have that label there".

Who knows.. maybe I've become immune to labels in a country where everyone is suing everyone else! ... Read more

Book Description
Disputes over free expression in the arts have always loomed as struggles between creativity and repression, transgression and outrage, candor and hypocrisy. But while high-profile shootouts at art museums and less visible skirmishes at schools, libraries, and theaters persist, overt censorship is no longer the only, or the most dire, threat to free expression. On the one hand, society has become more accepting of provocative imagery, with media conglomerates often leading the way in the depreciation of taboos. On the other hand, artists, while enjoying some unprecedented liberties, are hemmed in by new constraints that often fall beyond the range of First Amendment protection. The current terrain bears little resemblance to the culture wars of a decade ago, much less to what the First Amendment's Framers could have imagined. And since Sept. 11, 2001, the frontlines of the free-expression debate have been shifting once again. Based on a Columbia University conference organized by the National Arts Journalism Program, The New Gatekeepers explores the reconfigured ranks of those who decide what the public gets to see, hear and read, from struggles over intellectual property and copyright, to continuing debates about acceptable and offensive content in the cultural marketplace, to the less visible biases of the arts funding system. This heavily illustrated book also includes a historical overview of censorship and contributions by 40 scholars, artists, experts and journalists from around the United States. Discussed and participating artists include Edouard Manet, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Serra, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Andres Serrano, Carolee Schneemann, Dread Scott, Gran Fury, Joel-Peter Witkin, Kara Walker, Jock Sturges, Chris Ofili, and Tom Sachs. ... Read more

Book Description
"Blonde bombshell," "It Girl," "uber-babe" -- Pamela Anderson, star of tv series Baywatch and celebrated Playboy playmate, mesmerized the world with a doll's face, pinup figure, sexy tattoos and a man-eating smile.In a tradition that extends from Jean Harlow through Brigette Bardot to Madonna, Pam is the sex goddess of the 21st century.Sante D'Orazio, America's most sought-after celebrity photographer, photographed Pamela Anderson in a one-day session in the Fall of 2000 on the terrace of a mansion in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles.His images, for the first time published in Pam: American Icon, are both a visual study on the phenomenon of the blonde and a seductive collection of erotica. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It's a big book, but not many pictures.
If you're looking for another Sante D'Orazio collection, packed full of images like his last two books ("A Private View" & "Sante D'Orazio: Photographs"), this is not the book for you.What's not mentioned in the editorial review is that this is a companion piece/catalog for a gallery show held last Spring (2005) in New York.It's all about Pam, but in the end, there are 6-7 unique pictures with 3-5 variations on each image. ... Read more

Book Description
"Greek collector Dakis Joannou is one of the preeminent collectors of contemporary art in the world, with a collection that stands as a virtual who's who of artists from the 1980s through today. Eighty-five of those artists are represented in Monument to Now--the most utterly relevant to today, of course. Leading curators from New York, Milan, and Paris have contributed essays and selected the included artists. Designed by acclaimed graphic artist Stefan Sagmeister, the hardcover edition features a three-dimensional monument affixed to the front cover; the paperback retains some trace of the monument, perhaps a footprint of the monument on the front cover, a pop-up monument inside, or some other invention. The follow-up to Everything That's Interesting Is New, an earlier book on the Joannou collection, Monument to Now strictly includes work dating from 1985 and later, with a focus on the artists who are most relevant now. Among many new acquisitions featured are works by Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Gregory Crewdson, Anna Gaskell, Mariko Mori, Chris Ofili, Tom Sachs, Fred Tomaselli, and Kara Walker. Other included artists are Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney, Ashley Bickerton, Rineke Dijkstra, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Gober, Andreas Gursky, Peter Halley, Mike Kelley, Toba Khedoori, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Cady Noland, Gabriel Orozco, Charles Ray, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing, Christopher Wool, and Chen Zhen." ... Read more