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Tung Walsh does Jeff Koons
Say what you will about his balloon animals and endless kitsch. Call him finished, uninspired and a hack. Jeff Koons, household name and former Wall Streeter, is the only contemporary artist many people have ever heard of. And while he may be very bad news for art itself (some even arguing that his work marks the end of art), he’s certainly good news for the art market, fattening its bottom line gratuitously and drawing in both collectors and audiences who might otherwise ignore art altogether.
Truth be told, he is an innovator and has had his share of breakthroughs as an artist. One would be hard pressed to deny the visual and cultural impact of his work. In a way – and this is not to deride the very dynamic American art scene – he’s very much become today’s quintessential American artist: big, self-aggrandizing and shamelessly commercial. And pretty much a force unto himself.
For the spring/summer issue of POP, 2DM’s freshest photographer Tung Walsh captured a very chipper Koons in all his big, self-aggrandising, and shamelessly commercial glory (spot the hidden Duchamp reference!). In his trademark suit, he looks rather like he’s just robbed Tommy Hilfiger’s closet. Interviewed by an always incisive POP for the shoot, Koons muses on about his infamous Popeye work (which you can catch later this year at London’s Serpentine Gallery), fame as an artist and post-divorce destruction.
Tung also shot the opulent “An Italian Apartment” for the issue, and there’s even a spread by his former mentor Juergen Teller.
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