Jeff Koons – Untitled

The most significant and innovative elements in the work of Jeff Koons are the method and the tools with which he came to terms with the fundamental themes in the culture of contemporary art: from materialism to consumerism, from the concept of power to that of art itself. From the latest models of vacuum cleaners in the showcases of the early Eighties to the compositions in wood and porcelain of personages or stereotypes from the world of the silver screen and of songs, to objects for children or souvenirs, from mirrors to the last great paintings which assemble images from the fashion world and from those of toys and fast food, Koons reworks and revolutionises the ready – made of Duchamp, of Dada and of Pop art. His work aims at “mass communication” through a visual vocabulary which is extrapolated from advertising and from the entertainment industry, bringing to an extreme level the fine line between artistic language and popular culture. The large teleri canvases on the walls of the Madre are reminiscent of the great narrative cycles of ancient frescoes and reinterpret in a critical key the practice and the dynamics of contemporary means of communication through the tradition of art.