Synopsis "Jeff Koons: At the Ashmolean"
•Jeff Koons is one the most famous, important, subversive and expensive artists in the world. Here he curates a range of works from his entire career, many having never been shown in the UK •Accompanies at exhibition at The Ashmolean, Oxford, from February to June, 2019 • Includes an interview with Jeff Koons •New essay by Sir Norman Rosenthal "I couldn't think of a better place to have a dialogue about art today and what it can be" - Jeff Koons This is an intimate look at the career of contemporary art's most famous and, reportedly, expensive, artists. Jeff Koons himself curated the art which remains almost as controversial as it was when the works first hit the art scene by storm in the 1980's. Like the rest of the art world, Koons shocked and inspired the Brits and this publication documents his new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, one of the world's most distinguished and oldest institutions which has also led the way in interpreting and presenting the important New in art. There are 43 color works along with two in black-and-white - among them his most famous - Equilibrium, Statuary, Banality, Antiquity and the recent Gazing Ball sculptures and paintings. Koons, together with guest curator, Norman Rosenthal, present a tableaux to provoke a unique conversation about the creations and the history of art and ideas with which the work engages. The publication also includes Alexander Sturgis's interview with Koons. From his earliest works Koons has explored the 'ready-made' and appropriated image - using unadulterated found objects and creating painstaking replicas of ancient sculptures and Old Master paintings which almost defy belief in their craftsmanship and precision. Throughout his career Koons has pushed at the boundaries of contemporary art practice, stretching the limits of what is possible.
