拍品專文
"I believe that banality can bring salvation right now. Banality is one of the greatest tools that we have. It can seduce. It is a great seducer." (J. Koons, The Binational, Boston/Dsseldorf 1988, p. 122).
In his 1988 Banality series, Jeff Koons continued to explore the mystification of the consumer object and the commodification of desire through the appropriation of gift-shop memorabilia and American Pop culture. Focusing on such larger-than-life, popular icons as Michael Jackson, the Pink Panther and Buster Keaton, Koons transforms their mass-market appeal into high art, albeit unapologetic, high kitch. The result is an ironic art form that teasingly cuts at both the culture which produces such images and the institutions which support them.
Buster Keaton, like several other figures from the Banality series, was hand-carved by Italian artisans, merging an old-world, folkloric craft with a new world subject matter and populist sensibility. Reminiscent of porcelain and gift shop figurines yet overblown in scale, Buster Keaton appears on the back of a donkey, like Christ in his entry into Jerusalem. With Buster Keaton, Koons transmogrifies actor/director Buster Keaton's comic legacy into a monument of irresistible, absurdist farce.
In his 1988 Banality series, Jeff Koons continued to explore the mystification of the consumer object and the commodification of desire through the appropriation of gift-shop memorabilia and American Pop culture. Focusing on such larger-than-life, popular icons as Michael Jackson, the Pink Panther and Buster Keaton, Koons transforms their mass-market appeal into high art, albeit unapologetic, high kitch. The result is an ironic art form that teasingly cuts at both the culture which produces such images and the institutions which support them.
Buster Keaton, like several other figures from the Banality series, was hand-carved by Italian artisans, merging an old-world, folkloric craft with a new world subject matter and populist sensibility. Reminiscent of porcelain and gift shop figurines yet overblown in scale, Buster Keaton appears on the back of a donkey, like Christ in his entry into Jerusalem. With Buster Keaton, Koons transmogrifies actor/director Buster Keaton's comic legacy into a monument of irresistible, absurdist farce.