Stock Market to Art Market
A look at the career of the kitsch art king
by Anne Halliday
1955 Gloria Koons gives birth to a son, Jeffrey Lynn Koons, on January 21st in the industrial town of York, Pennsylvania.
 |
1960 Koons's parents start their son in art lessons; he will eventually study Byzantine painting and American folk art at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore.
1975 Koons moves to Chicago.
1976-77 Koons relocates to New York City, where he sells memberships at the Museum of Modern Art.
|
1979 To pay for increasingly expensive projects, Koons begins selling mutual funds and trading commodities on Wall Street. He trades a rundown apartment on the Lower East Side for a 16th Street apartment in Chelsea that serves as a studio, gallery, and living space.
1985 His first solo exhibition, Equilibrium.
|
1988 Banality, Koons's series of wood and porcelain sculptures including the famous gold-and-white Michael Jackson and Bubbles, is displayed in Cologne, New York, and Chicago's Donald Young Gallery.
|
1990 The Hungarian-born porn star Ilona Staller (La Ciccolina) collaborates with Koons on a risqué series called Made in Heaven, which tests public tolerance for Koons's work. They marry a year later.
1992 Ludwig, Staller and Koons's only child, is born. Koons completes his iconic 43-foot floral Puppy sculpture in Arolsen, Germany.
1994 Koons and Staller divorce, and a U.S. court awards Koons custody of Ludwig, but Staller “kidnaps” the boy and flies to Italy, where a court awards her custody. Heartbroken, Koons begins his Celebration series.
|
1995-2007 Adding to Celebration, Koons completes several works that resemble giant Mylar balloons.
2002 Koons marries Justine Wheeler, an artist who works in his studio.
|
2006 Balloon Flower (Red), a new Koons sculpture, is unveiled at 7 World Trade Center in New York City.
2007 Sotheby's sells Hanging Heart (Magenta, Gold), another artistic expression of the pain of losing Ludwig, for a record-breaking $23.6 million.
2008 On May 31st Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art opens the first major U.S. exhibition of Koons's work in 15 years.
Photography: The New Jeff Koons, 1980. Private collection. © Jeff Koons; Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Dr. J Silver Series), 1985. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Gerald S. Elliott Collection. © Jeff Koons; Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988. Collection San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchased through the Marian and Bernard Messenger Fund and restricted funds. © Jeff Koons; Pink Panther, 1988, Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Gerald S. Elliott Collection. © Jeff Koons; Triple Hulk Elvis I, 2007. Collection of William J. Bell. © Jeff Koons; Balloon Dog (Orange), 1994-2000. Private collection. © Jeff Koons
Email
Print
del.icio.us
digg
yahoo!
CommentsAdvertisement
Copyright 2008 Chicago Magazine
Comments are moderated. We review them in an effort to remove offensive language, commercial messages, and irrelevancies.