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Lot Essay
Jeff Koons’s Popeye (Green) compellingly incorporates two of the renowned American artist’s most memorable motifs—his iconic adaptation of the Popeye character and his fascination with reflective surfaces—into a potent recapitulation of his oeuvre. The mirrored surface of the work establishes a confrontational relationship between the artwork and the viewer, incorporating the observer into itself and merging their identity with that of Popeye. The mirroring effect, first seen in Koons’s celebrated Rabbit sculpture, is coupled with the Popeye motif, which first emerged as a sculptural series in 2002. Reflecting on this series, art historian and curator Scott Rothkopf notes how the works “traffic in the confrontation and confusion between the authentic and the delusive, the manufactured and the handcrafted, the durable and the evanescent, the cheery and the brutal, the natural and the made” (S. Rothkopf, “No Limits,” in Jeff Koons: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2014, p. 20). Popeye (Green) expands upon these hermeneutics by simultaneously reflecting their concerns outward toward the viewer and enveloping the viewer within the work itself.
Popeye (Green) recreates Popeye’s instantly recognizable silhouette as a two-dimensional facsimile which lays flat against the wall. Flattening his imagery from his previous Popeye in the round sculptures heightens the cartoonish aspect of the artist’s source material while simultaneously retaining its discursive function—by bringing his work closer to his original referent, Koons strengthens the juxtapositions inherent in the work. Koons painted his series in five unique versions, utilizing either blue, green, orange, red, or yellow coloring. The green used here recalls the original pigmentation of the “Thimble Theatre” cartoon from 1925 as well as the title font color from the Popeye comic books. Another figure from this cartoon, Olive Oyl, another reflective wall artwork, is described by Koons as the present work’s pendant.
Discussing his reference to Popeye the Sailor Man cartoon character, Koons has relayed how “Popeye is about an image of ‘I am what I am.’ Kind of a symbol of self-acceptance that you have to embrace who you are. Popeye has spinach. Spinach brings about his transcendence, and brings about his power. That's what art [is]. Art is our spinach. Art can bring about this transcendence and this empowerment and our life can expand and we can have a vastness that is what we're seeking” (J. Koons, quoted in “Jeff Koons, Popeye, 2009-12,” Whitney Museum of American Art, online, 27 June, 2014 [accessed 14 October 2025]). Koons’s optimistic account of transcendence and empowerment and the sense of an expansive vastness to life is further accentuated in the present work with his usage of the highly reflective surface.
Describing the importance of mirrors and reflections in his work, Koons has described how “I used mirrors earlier in my work. I started back in 1977 and 1978 using store-bought mirrors... what I have always enjoyed about mirrors is both the recognition they give the viewer and their movement. The viewer is creating an abstraction by moving around and causing change. It is always affirming you, the viewer” (J. Koons, quoted in E. Geuna, “Jeff Koons Interviewed,” in Jeff Koons, exh. cat., Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Napoli, 2003, p. 143). Reflections pervade Koons’s oeuvre, from the mirrors used as bases for his early inflatable sculptures to the highly polished surfaces of his Statuary and Celebration series and the Gazing Ball works. Popeye (Green), however, is where the motif reaches its apotheosis, as its flat surface is pervasive, recapitulating the environment in which it is placed outward back toward the viewer. By integrating two of his most renowned and emphatic motifs together, Jeff Koons achieves a mesmeric and contemplative result in Popeye (Green). By inserting his own viewer’s reflection into the work, Koons literally incorporates his audience into the work’s themes of self-acceptance and empowerment.
Popeye (Green) recreates Popeye’s instantly recognizable silhouette as a two-dimensional facsimile which lays flat against the wall. Flattening his imagery from his previous Popeye in the round sculptures heightens the cartoonish aspect of the artist’s source material while simultaneously retaining its discursive function—by bringing his work closer to his original referent, Koons strengthens the juxtapositions inherent in the work. Koons painted his series in five unique versions, utilizing either blue, green, orange, red, or yellow coloring. The green used here recalls the original pigmentation of the “Thimble Theatre” cartoon from 1925 as well as the title font color from the Popeye comic books. Another figure from this cartoon, Olive Oyl, another reflective wall artwork, is described by Koons as the present work’s pendant.
Discussing his reference to Popeye the Sailor Man cartoon character, Koons has relayed how “Popeye is about an image of ‘I am what I am.’ Kind of a symbol of self-acceptance that you have to embrace who you are. Popeye has spinach. Spinach brings about his transcendence, and brings about his power. That's what art [is]. Art is our spinach. Art can bring about this transcendence and this empowerment and our life can expand and we can have a vastness that is what we're seeking” (J. Koons, quoted in “Jeff Koons, Popeye, 2009-12,” Whitney Museum of American Art, online, 27 June, 2014 [accessed 14 October 2025]). Koons’s optimistic account of transcendence and empowerment and the sense of an expansive vastness to life is further accentuated in the present work with his usage of the highly reflective surface.
Describing the importance of mirrors and reflections in his work, Koons has described how “I used mirrors earlier in my work. I started back in 1977 and 1978 using store-bought mirrors... what I have always enjoyed about mirrors is both the recognition they give the viewer and their movement. The viewer is creating an abstraction by moving around and causing change. It is always affirming you, the viewer” (J. Koons, quoted in E. Geuna, “Jeff Koons Interviewed,” in Jeff Koons, exh. cat., Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Napoli, 2003, p. 143). Reflections pervade Koons’s oeuvre, from the mirrors used as bases for his early inflatable sculptures to the highly polished surfaces of his Statuary and Celebration series and the Gazing Ball works. Popeye (Green), however, is where the motif reaches its apotheosis, as its flat surface is pervasive, recapitulating the environment in which it is placed outward back toward the viewer. By integrating two of his most renowned and emphatic motifs together, Jeff Koons achieves a mesmeric and contemplative result in Popeye (Green). By inserting his own viewer’s reflection into the work, Koons literally incorporates his audience into the work’s themes of self-acceptance and empowerment.