Koons, born in the US in 1955, is an irreverent and controversial artist, still particularly cherished by the art market. Today, several artworks he has done in the past 30 years are being exhibited in a retrospective occupying most of the Whitney. The museum has chosen the artist to say goodbye to the Madison Ave. building, just before moving to the new facilities at the Meatpacking District. 

The exhibition is organised chronologically, a room for each series. The first one displays Celebration, with works done in 1994. That year, the artist was invited to design a calendar, for which he created a series of large scale photographs, related to celebrations in general. Also in the room  you'll see certain daily object of industrial fabrication, but exquisite beauty and feeling.

Cake, by Jeff Koons (1995-97)

Technique: oil on canvas

Private Collection

Moon (Light Pink), by Jeff Koons

To make his very popular Baloon-dog, a 3-mts-high-one-ton piece, Koons worked with a workshop in  California, where sixty separate pieces where made and later assembled with utmost accuracy. The artist wanted the sculpture to have, on the outside, the shape and curves of an inflatable balloon, but on the inside, it should feel as if true air circulated around. He conceived the dog as a tribute to his son, who lived far away from him and who he really missed.

In the room dedicated to Antiquity, the pieces on display recreate classic sculptures, but using the same shiny materials of the heart and the balloon-dog. To achieve this, he used scanners to trace the surface of the sculpture, prior to making the replicas in mirror-polished and colourful stainless steel.  

Metallic Venus, by Jeff Koons (2010-2012)

The following work, Pluto and Proserpina, was bought by Eduardo Costantini, founder of the MALBA, for the entrance of his residence building under construction in Miami, United States.

Pluto and Proserpina, by Jeff Koons (2010-2013)

"I am the one with the idea", Jeff Koons explains, who runs a workshop of 130 collaborators and does nothing with his own hands. The artist's skills, formerly essential, is today replaced by the concept, the idea promoted by the artist. A 19th century dog looks quite different from Koons' balloon-dog. They are both art and show us how much we have changed in the past two centuries.