Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons was born on January 21st in York, Pennsylvania. As a child he went door to door selling wrapping paper for some pocket change. As a child his biggest art icon was Salvador Dali, as he said that he loved the way that he distorted the everyday images and made them fantasy. He attended the School of Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Maryland Institute College of Art. After college he went onto Wall Street and was a commodities trader while trying to make it as an artist. He finally got his break when he received recognition from TIME magazine in the 1980s.

He then started his studio in New York City, very near Andy Warhol's The Factory. He even ran it in a similar way. Koon's employs around 30 aspiring artists to make his art for him. None of his pieces are actually touched by him, however, he comes up with the ideas. He is ridiculed for not being an artist, however he says that everyone is an artist, everyone has ideas and then has others fulfill them for them, just no one admits it.
He specializes in recreating pre-made objects, or just bringing them together. He has gotten himself in a lot of lawsuits because of this. He does not claim the objects as his, however, just the mere idea of bringing them together. There are two categories for his art, that almost every piece can fit under, or so it seems to me. These categories are: Over 10 ft. or made of metal. An installation that meets both of these criteria is the exhibit named Statuary, which are a series of large, steel, blow up toys or balloon animals finished with a mirrored finish.

Koons has had a very tumulus love life. He and his college girlfriend had a child, then given up for adoption, but now has reconnected with him. He also married a porn start, and they had one child, then she ran to Rome with the child. Koons won custody of the child until it went to Roman Court, where he lost it, ending the marriage. He is now married to one of his aspiring artist, Justine Wheeler. They have been married, happily may I add, for almost 10 years.
I have a hard time accepting Koons' work as in fact art. I mean many artist take pride in creating the forms and the ideas themselves, where, rather, he has others do them for him. I have an extremely hard time with that. However, the forms that he makes are very beautiful, and just a pieces, I consider them art, but I do not like the background behind them.