Ready-made Koons

Last night I attended a reception for Jeff Koons at Jeff Koons’ studio. He is being honored by Americans for the Arts at the 2006 National Arts Awards on October 16th. I have become a huge fan and supporter of AFTA and am serving on the gala benefit committee for the second time this year. I am thrilled that he is being recognized for artistic achievement as well as what he does to support arts education. Hosts for the evening were gala chair Maria Bell, Stephanie and Peter Brant, Edye and Eli Broad, Lietta and Dakis Jaonnou and Samantha and Aby Rosen.

It was a great party and an incredible opportunity to see the process behind Koons’ work. I saw pool toys made of cast aluminum that you would think could only be made of plastic until you touch them. From concept, to design, to casting, to polishing, to months of painting everyday and all day–over a three year process. Extraordinary. One of the “toys” appeared to be an inflated doughnut ring (it too was aluminum) hanging from an industrial hook. A very heavy red hook. The hook was part of the work. A partial “ready-made.”

I was especially excited to be there having recently grown in my appreciation for the artist on a trip last week to MoMA where I saw Three Ball 50/50 Tank (Two Dr. J Super Series, Wilson Super Shot) from 1985. The work is a fish tank half filled with water with three basketballs half submerged in the water. On MoMA’s website you can hear Koons talk about the work and the broader significance of ready-made art. He sees the ready-made in art as a metaphor for the acceptance of others. By placing a urinal on a pedestal and calling it art in 1917, Marcel Duchamp gave artists a new way to comment on the human condition. Koons continues the conversation brilliantly. I mean, if three basketballs in a fish tank can be accepted into the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art, imagine what you or I can do and be?