Jeff Koons and the use of American English

artist’s interview published in Jeff Koons - Pictures 1980-2002 by 
Thomas Kellein and finally the interview appeared on The Journal of 
Contemporary Art by Klaus Ottmann (1986). First of all, I have 
decided to work on these materials because they were published in 
printed editions and for this reason the analysis of the terms used 
by the artist appears to be easier. Concerning the American English 
use of grammar, I have concentrated on both the printed 
quotations and interviews, and the audiovisual interview 
broadcasted on Bloomberg Television on 14
th
 July 2008. Finally, I 
have decided to dedicate the last chapter to a brief analysis of the 
linguistic function in Jeff Koons’ language and this analysis has 
been an interesting aspect of my study because Koons, as the 
majority of the conceptual artists, is enough difficult to understand 
immediately, but it is particularly difficult to comprehend exactly 
the peculiar artistic expressions he uses. For this reason, it has 
been interesting to observe and analyze how the artist describes 
his artwork and gives voice to his artistic intentions.
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1.     Jeff Koons
1.1   A brief introduction to the artist
Until recently Jeff Koons has been the most valued contemporary 
artist in the auction houses all over the world. His sculpture 
Hanging Heart, for instance, was sold at an auction in New York for 
23,6 thousand dollars (about 17.152.000 Euros). Even though the 
art market is fickle and many artists in the last few years have 
achieved the title of “most valued artist all over the world”
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, Koons 
has been known as one of the most important artists of the last few 
decades of the twentieth century. His wide popularity is mainly due 
to his self worship, which he has built over the years, insomuch 
that the most important art critics of his time, mostly hostile to 
Koons’ artwork and to Koons himself because of his almost 
prophetic statements, many times accused him to be only a 
charlatan
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. Koons’ way of showing and promoting himself is a vital 
part of his artwork, because in this way he has been always able to 
raise and satisfy people’s expectations of his events. Moreover 
Koons’ main gift has always been to anticipate new trends so that 
he has always been able to draw attention on himself and to hold 
the stage. His career started in the late Seventies, peaked during 
the Eighties and continues until now, constantly evolving its forms 
and language which always convey one message: wills, desires and 
aspirations of the contemporary society are portrayed and fixed in 
the surface of materials reaching a state of immortality, and at the 
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1
  From  the  ar?cle  published  on  www.arteconomy24.ilsole24ore.com/quotazioni/ar?s?.php?id=360
2
  AA.VV.,  Jeff  Koons.  Retrospeⸯamente ,   Postmedia,  Milano,  2007,  “Banale  e  celebra㘯a:  l’Arte  di   Jeff  Koons ”,   p.  15,  it.  
trad.  of  “Banality  and  Celebra?on:  The  Art  of  Jeff  Koons”,  from  Arthur  C.  Danto  Unnatural  Wonders  –  Essays  from  the  
gap  between  art  and  life,  Columbia  University  Press,  New  York,  2005,  pp.  286-­‐302.
same time materials and what they represent always recall the 
everyday life imagery of ordinary people. Because of Koons’ artistic 
expression is focused on everyday life objects and concepts such 
as vacuum cleaners, flowers, inflatable objects, famous 
personalities, beach toys and pornography, many art critics 
nicknamed him ‘the prince of kitsch’. Nevertheless, he has been 
able to fight and win the battle started with the conceptual 
revolutions of Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol during the Fifties 
and the Sixties. This battle, based on the challenge of making high 
art by the use of popular art, is at the base of a considerable part of 
his poetics, and has inspired a loud and gaudy artwork, which is 
colourful, flashy and playful; and Koons has also tried to make his 
artworks part of the history of art thanks to the improvement of his 
communication skills which perfectly conform to his times. Besides 
the wish to redraw the line between high art and popular art, 
formerly drawn by art historians and critics, his purpose seems 
more like a social mission
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. 
The artist himself declares: 
“If art is not directed toward the social, it becomes 
purely self-indulgent, like sex without love. But if art 
is functioning in the social sphere and helping to 
define social order, it’s working purely as a tool of 
philosophy, enhancing the quality of individual life 
and re-directing social and political attitudes. Art 
can define an individual’s aspirations and goals just 
as other system – economics, for instance – are 
defining them now. Art can define ultimate states of 
being in a more responsible way than economics 
because art is concerned with philosophy as well as 
with the marketplace.”
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. 
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3
  AA.VV.,  Jeff  Koons.  Retrospeⸯamente ,  Postmedia,  Milano,  2007,  by  Elena  Molinaro  and  Gianni  Romano,  pp.  15-­‐33  
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  J.  Koons,  The  Jeff  Koons  Handbook,  Anthony  d’Offay  Gallery,  London,  1992,  pp.  36-­‐37  
Jeff Koons mainly addresses the bourgeoisie because people from 
this social class knew a real economic rebirth during the Eighties 
and they weren’t forced to struggle for their well-being anymore, 
so they started to demand a wider variety of choice, but this 
process led to the firm power of mass production and consequently 
of consumerism. He started to investigate the mental processes 
and the aesthetic strategies used to stimulate the consumer to 
desire and crave new things and all people’s likings and vices were 
highlighted so that people could realise their interests and desires. 
It’s important to mention that Jeff Koons’ art began to develop in 
the social context of the USA, focused on the cult of aesthetics and 
appearance. His works highlight the tendency of the Americans to 
identify themselves with the television and cinema stereotypes, 
tendency which lead them to believe that what is on TV is true. But 
maybe everyone can relate to Koons’ art, considering that he is 
inspired by the whole western contemporary society, by its virtues 
and vices, so that we can end this introduction quoting the title of a 
Franceso Bonami’s essay on the artist, entitled Jeff Koons ‘r’ us.
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1.2   Jeff Koons’ poetics 
Jeff Koons belongs to the long tradition of the artists of the 
Seventies, among which we can mention Haim Streinbach
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, Cindy 
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5
  Essay  included   in  “Jeff  Koons”   by  F.   Bonami,  printed  by  Yale  University  Press   in  collabora?on  with  the  Museum  of  
Contemporary  Art  of  Chicago,  2008
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  H.  Steinbach   (1944)  has  been  an  exponent   of  art  based  on  already  exis?ng  objects;  in  par?cular  he  explores  their  
psychological,  cultural   and  ritualis?c  meanings  and   contexts   focusing  on  the  selec?on   and  arrangement  of  everyday  
life  objects  and,  in  order  to  bring  them  to  light,  he  conceived  structures  and  framing  devices  for  their  representa?on.  
Sherman
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 and Jeff Wall
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; they developed a new tendency based on 
the appropriation of images and objects as their main source of 
inspiration, or even as social and political metaphors. Koons 
became one of the leading 
exponents of this movement, 
thanks to his conceptual art, 
focused at first on installations 
of objects from our everyday 
life, then on the reproduction of 
items connected to the 
aesthetic taste proper to 
popular mass culture. His work, 
even though criticised as 
kitsch, reached high levels of 
originality and formal 
perfection. Before being widely 
considered as the heir of Andy Warhol, Koons was influenced by 
Marcel Duchamp
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’s ready-made concept, which spread during the 
first decades of the twentieth century. Duchamp criticised the 
traditional value and meaning of the artwork giving rise to a new 
artistic conception based on aesthetic value, therefore obliging the 
observer to exercise his or her intellectual, sensory and aesthetic 
faculties making the artistic process a mental process. By the use of 
ready-mades and the consequent personal judgment of the 
observer, Duchamp was able to give an artistic value to those 
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7
    C.  Sherman  (1954)   is  an  American  photographer   and  film  director  best  known  for  her  conceptual  self-­‐portraits.   She  
has   always   worked   by   photographing  herself   in   a  range   of   costumes   and   also   appropria?ng  other   visual   forms   as  
centrefolds,  fashion  photographs,  historical  portraits  and  so?-­‐core  sex  images.    
8
  J.  Wall   (1946)  is  a  Canadian  ar?st  and  an  art-­‐historical  writer.  He  has  been  a  key  figure  in  Vancouver’s  art  scene  for  
years  and  became  famous  for  his  large-­‐scale  back-­‐lit  cibachrome  photographs  which  o?en  take  Vancouver’s  mixture  of  
natural  beauty,  urban  decay,  postmodern  and  industrial  featurelessness  as  their  backdrop.    
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  M.  Duchamp   (1887   –   1968)   was   a   French   American   ar?st,   whose   work   is   o?en   associated   with   Dadaism   and  
Surrealism.  He  moved  quickly  through  the  avant-­‐garde  circles  of  his  ?me  and   challenged  conven?onal   thought   about  
ar?s?c  processes  and  art  marke?ng.  
Figure 1 - Art Magazine Ads (Artforum)
Lithograph
114.3 x 94.6 cm 
Edition of 50 plus 10 AP 
1988