Jeff Koons: EasyFun-ethereal

Accompanying an exhibition of seven large-scale paintings commissioned for the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, this volume explores Koons´s recent work - a hybrid of fun and fantasy that emphasizes total self-gratification, celebrating the imaginative universe of childhood pleasures, as well as adultsexual desire and allure.An interview with Koons by the art historian and critic David Sylvester offers readers the artist´s personal insight of his career, while an essay by Robert Rosenblum focuses on the paintings and provides an analysis of Koons´s technique and imagery.Koon´s new series of paintings employs imagery drawn from glossy magazines, brochures, advertisements and personal photographs that are collaged together using the technology of the computer. These electronic images then become transformed into large-scale traditional oil paintings rendered with photo-realist precision. A hybrid of fun and fantasy, the works feature such imagery as happy-faced deli sandwiches, spiralling roller-coaster rides, succelent lips, and loose strands and braids of hair.