Jeff Koons Essay Example

Artist Research Assignment: Jeff Koons Jeff Koons was born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania. When Koons was 7 years old, his parents put him in art lessons. In 1972 to 1975, he enrolled at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1975, he went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois where he studied there for only 1 year. Then in 1976, he went back to Maryland College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland where he received his B.F.A. Jeff Koons has 4 sons with his wife Justine Wheeler-Koons, who is also an artist. He had one daughter named Shannon who as an infant was put up for adoption but in the mid-1990s, they reestablished a relationship together. Many of Koons works have sold for millions of dollars. Some of his major gallery exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1988), Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (1993), Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin (2000), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2001), the Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli (2003), the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2004), and the Helsinki City Art Museum (2005). Jeff Koons has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his cultural achievements, and artworks. ("Koons, Jeff." Art Full Text Biographies. Publisher of Original Publication: The H.W. Wilson Company, 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.) “I get all my inspiration from the real world, so I’m much more involved in just walking down the street….and finding out what’s going on in the world then to look at another person’s interpretation.” Jeff Koons, Flash Art, Summer 1997. (Brettell, Richard R. Modern Art, 1851-1929: Capitalism and Representation. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.). Based on the quote, he gets his ideas from objects around him that he sees and from there he develops an artwork. Jeff Koons uses cheap, throwaway objects, such as balloons or even ornaments, and with the materials he creates a large monument. (Doney, Malcolm, and Meryl Doney. The Oxford Children's A to Z