The most expensive living Artist in the World - Jeff Koons - a Retrospective
Jeff Koons´shiny, ordinary designed "Balloon Dog" was sold at Christie's for more than 43 million euros. And so the American Jeff Koons replaced the German major painter Gerhard Richter regarding the title: "The most expensive living artist in the world". Gerhard Richter at that time sold an image with coarse colourful colour streaks for the price of 26.4 million euros.
Born in 1955, always good-humored American Koons got weekly painting lessons as a child. It was clear early on, that he would study art, and his father supported him by letting Jeff exhibit his childish images already in the rooms of his furniture store.
Koons´ first exhibition took place in 1980 at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. In the years 1979-1988 Koons stood out as a neo-conceptual artist who created installations, designed e.g. out of vacuum cleaners with fluorescent lamps. In his artistic career Koons has been using almost all available media formats and visual arts: painting, installation, photography and sculpture - preferably made of wood -, marble, glass and stainless steel.
In 1990 Koons hired the scandal politician and porn actress Ilona Staller for the artwork series "Made in Heaven". Out of the joint work an affair developed. The couple married and had a son. However, the marriage already broke in 1992.
After a few quiet years, during which Koons withdrew from the art world, in the early 2000s he returned with picturesque large format and photorealistic collages in the field of magazine advertising. Furthermore, Koons dabbled in acting: In 2008 he played a Californian politician alongside Jean Penn in the movie "Milk".
His diverse artwork that is usually created out of everyday life originates from numerous influences. It ranges from Rococo via Dada and Surrealism, to Pop Art. A major influence on Koons had, for example, Salvador Dali. He already was in touch with Dali at an early age.
