Jeff Koons
© Philipp Hugues Bonan
«It is up to the artist to rearrange things, to put them together as in a new chemical compound.»
© Philipp Hugues Bonan
In his youth, Jeff Koons worked with his father, doing door-to-door sales of ribbons, lace, and gift wrapping paper, and selling Coca-Cola at a golf course. While still a student, he managed to meet Salvador Dalí, whom he admired.
After studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Jeff Koons settled in New York in 1976. He worked until 1979 as the head of the subscription desk at the Museum of Modern Art. Selling investment funds to finance his lifestyle, he tinkered with artistic experiments, thus creating his first work. The New, electrical appliances attached to neon lights. He soon became noticed by the New York art scene.
His beginnings are complicated, however, and, lacking money, he returns to his parents, who now live in Florida, and works for a time as a political cartoonist. He returns to New York and creates the series Equilibrium, presented in his first exhibition in 1985 at the ephemeral gallery International with Monument. He becomes a commodity broker on Wall Street in order to finance his artistic production. After his success, his works are now created in a workshop located in Chelsea, near New York, with more than 100 assistants. He does not create any works himself, but inspires ideas that are executed by his professional collaborators. His Inflatable Rabbit, a rabbit made of stainless steel in 1986, and his Balloon Dogs are now considered by the greatest collectors, including François Pinault, as emblematic works of the late 20th century.
