The only thing the artist can do is be honest with themselves and make the art they want to make. That’s what I’ve always done.
Jeff Koons
Artists who publish books of documentation are, in a sense, using the artform to its simplest degree. —Tim Guest, 1981
Sharing an artwork through the very public method of printing and reproduction is the epitome of democratic dissemination. In their seminal 1981 publication Books By Artists, Tim Guest and Germano Celant begin by addressing their audience’s predictable desire to define a book. They suggest that it is not really possible – or necessary – to define what an artist book is, because any given work becomes a conceptual extension of the artist and is therefore an object of infinite incarnations.
There is too frequently a misinterpretation of printed works and editions as lesser commodities in the market. With artist’s books, the goal was often to distance an artist’s idea from the proverbial canvas, to use words and non-dimensional media as a means to engender and distribute a creative philosophy. Such efforts often led to the creation of superbly idiosyncratic editioned works that succinctly communicate an artist’s entire conceptual foundation, however ineffable. In this way, the artist’s book and the development of conceptual art are inextricably linked. Take, for example, Seth Siegelaub’s July, August, September 1969 exhibition catalogue in which the book is the exhibition. On its pages, it brings together eleven works from eleven artists working in separate locations, works that never physically shared premises themselves.
For artists like John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha, whose broad outputs often hinged on the collision of word and image, the book became a quintessential medium. One of my favorites from this selection is Baldessari’s rare Brutus Killed Caesar, in which two unknown antagonists face each other with a randomized household object between them. It is understood that these objects are murder weapons, but nothing violent takes place outside of the viewer’s imagination, likely shaped by earlier historical texts like Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Brilliant. Another scarce title herewith is Ruscha’s Dutch Details. Comprised of multiple images taken by the artist showing bridges in The Netherlands, it plays off of his Every Building on the Sunset Strip from five years earlier. Oblong as well, with large fold-outs, this book was very difficult to produce and the publisher did not fulfill the edition, therefore making this the rarest of Ruscha’s coveted artist books.
The book’s potential for comprehensively documenting an ephemeral work or performance was critical for many artists, including Gordon Matta-Clark and Bruce Nauman, the latter whom made an artist’s book (Burning Small Fires) about burning another artist’s book (Ruscha’s Various Small Fires and Milk).
The pursuit to collect such a wide and comprehensive library of these titles is a passionate endeavor, and it is my view that no collection could be complete without the artist’s book. A personal library needs this texture to augment the rigid monographs and academic surveys that equate the bulk of most collections. Whether a single rarity catches your eye or you’re drawn to group lots from the likes of Christian Boltanski, Gilbert & George, Richard Prince, and Sol LeWitt, Cover to Cover is a fantastic opportunity to bolster an existing reading room or to plant the seed of a collection to cherish for years to come.
—Peter Jefferson, Senior Specialist
Jeff Koons b. 1955
Born in York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons is an American artist renowned for his work in the realm of contemporary art. His creations are characterized by their vibrant colors, reflective surfaces, and themes that challenge traditional boundaries between high and low culture. Koons has emerged as one of the most influential and controversial artists of his generation, often polarizing critics and art enthusiasts with his provocative style and unabashed embrace of commercialism.
Koons' early interest in art was nurtured by his father, a furniture dealer and interior decorator and his mother, a seamstress. By the tender age of eight, he had begun making replicas of Old Masters paintings which he sold in his father’s shop. After graduating from high school Koons pursued formal education in art, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and studying briefly at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
In the 1980s, Koons gained prominence with his Equilibrium series, which featured basketballs suspended in tanks of water, and his Luxury and Degradation series, which critiqued consumerism through meticulously crafted stainless steel sculptures of liquor advertisements. However, it was his Banality series in the late 1980s that truly catapulted him to fame. This series included sculptures such as Michael Jackson and Bubbles and Pink Panther, which used kitsch imagery to challenge perceptions of taste and value in art. One of Koons' most iconic works is Balloon Dog, part of his Celebration series, which debuted in the 1990s. These larger-than-life sculptures of balloon animals, rendered in polished stainless steel with mirror-like surfaces, epitomize Koons' ability to blend childlike wonder with high art. Balloon Dog (Orange) famously sold for $58.4 million at auction in 2013, setting a record for the most expensive work by a living artist at the time.
Koons' work often blurs the lines between art and commerce, prompting debates about authenticity and originality. His approach to art-making is heavily influenced by the readymade concepts of Marcel Duchamp and the pop art sensibilities of Andy Warhol, and he has described his work as a celebration of the mundane and a reflection of contemporary society's values and desires. Despite his commercial success, Koons' work has not been without controversy. Critics often question the originality and artistic merit of his pieces, accusing him of prioritizing spectacle over substance. Nonetheless, Koons' influence on the art world is undeniable; he has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and retrospectives, including a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2014, and his work is held in countless private and public collections worldwide.
Auction Results Jeff Koons
