Representações do corpo (VII)

Jeff Koons (EUA, 1965)

Ilona's House Ejaculation, 1991



Ottmann: What is your main interest as an artist?

Koons: I'm interested in the morality of what it means to be an artist. As an artist I'm most concerned with what art means to me, how it defines my life, etc. And then after that, my next concern is my actions, the responsibility of my own actions in art in regard to other artists, and then to a wider range of the art audience, such as critics, museum people, collectors, etc. Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to effect mankind, to make the word a better place (this is not a cliche!).

Klaus Ottman

Koons' source material is kitsch (but never camp) and most people, artworld or not, would agree on that point. And yet lowbrow source material for high art has been one of the essential givens of the past 50 years, so the low/high schism is not the issue with Koons (or, as one might ironically say, 'Jeff'). The big issue with Koons then, if not the source material itself, is his stance towards that source material. This issue is always phrased in binary terms, YES: Jeff Koons is ironic and detached and is secretly mocking the images he professes to love, or NO: Koons loves and feels emotional about his source material and the work it subsequently spawns.

Douglas Coupland

Até ao fim do mês de Agosto, aproveita-se a canícula e os corpos mais descobertos para dar a ver (e a pensar) o corpo como matéria de criação artística. A escolha não será certamente representativa de um estudo do corpo através da arte, mas serve para olhar o corpo como mais do que mera massa. Ou talvez não. Primeiro apresentam-se propostas de mulheres, para depois se escolherem propostas masculinas. O corpo, como a arte o vê e representa. Sugestões, comentários, referências, outros nomes podem ser enviados para o mail ou deixados na caixa de comentários. Até ao fim de agosto n'O Melhor Anjo, dá-se ao corpo o espaço materializável.