Jeff Koons

Basel

With its current exhibition Jeff Koons, The Fondation Beyeler presents the first show ever devoted by a Swiss museum to the American artist. Koons, likely the best-known living artist, has for decades been causing a furore with the combination of popular and high culture that informs his art.

The extensive presentation focuses on three central series of works – ‚The New‘, ‚Banality and Celebration‘ – which represent crucial stages in Koons’s development and lead to the nucleus of his thinking and creative activity. ‚The New‘ comprises the ready-made-like cleaning appliances of his early period, symbols of newness and purity. ‚Banality‘ includes those traditionally crafted sculptures in porcelain and wood which have since become (post-)modern icons. Finally, in the ‚Celebration‘ series, on which Koons has been working for almost twenty years, appear high-gloss steel sculptures of unique material perfection, and large-format paintings in which the artist celebrates childhood in a veritably baroque way. Koons’s equally spectacular and subtle works are repeatedly concerned with themes such as innocence, beauty, sexuality and happiness. These reflect his conception of an art that is accessible to every viewer.

Fondation Beyeler

May 13th – September 2nd, 2012
Baselstrasse 101
4125 Basel
Switzerland

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