Comprising 120 objects dating from 1979 to the present, the exhibition is the most comprehensive ever devoted to the artist's groundbreaking oeuvre. By reconstituting all of his most iconic works and significant series in a chronological narrative, the retrospective allows visitors to understand Koons's remarkably diverse output as a multifaceted whole.
Jeff Koons is widely regarded as one of the most important, influential, popular, and controversial artists of the postwar era. Throughout his career, he has pioneered new approaches to the readymade, tested the boundaries between advanced art and mass culture, challenged the limits of industrial fabrication, and transformed the relationship of artists to the cult of celebrity and the global market. Yet despite these achievements, Koons has never been the subject of a retrospective surveying the full scope of his career. Comprising 120 objects dating from 1979 to the present, this exhibition will be the most comprehensive ever devoted to the artist’s groundbreaking oeuvre. By reconstituting all of his most iconic works and significant series in a chronological narrative, the retrospective will allow visitors to understand Koons’s remarkably diverse output as a multifaceted whole.
The exhibition will be the artist’s first major museum presentation in New York, and the first to fill nearly the entirety of the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer building with a single artist’s work. It will also be the final exhibition to take place there before the Museum opens its new building in the Meatpacking District in spring 2015. Following this exclusive presentation in the United States, the show will travel to Centre Pompidou in Paris from November 26, 2014 to April 27, 2015, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao from June 5 to September 27, 2015.
Jeff Koons: A Retrospective is organized by Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Associate Director of Programs.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
Leadership support for this exhibition is provided by
Gagosian Gallery
This exhibition is sponsored by
H&M
Bank of America
Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd
Significant support is provided by Neil G. Bluhm; Steven A. and Alexandra M. Cohen Foundation, Inc.; Susan and John Hess; Cari and Michael J. Sacks; and the National Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Major support is provided by Anne Cox Chambers, Nancy C. and A. Steven Crown, Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, Lise and Michael Evans, Anne Dias Griffin and Kenneth Griffin, Dakis Joannou, Allison and Warren Kanders, Amy and John Phelan, Brett and Daniel Sundheim, and David Zwirner Gallery.
Generous support is provided by The Broad Art Foundation; Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy; Wendy Fisher; Mr. and Mrs. J. Tomlinson Hill; Antonio Homem, Sonnabend Gallery; Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Linda and Harry Macklowe; the Mugrabi Collection; Brooke and Daniel Neidich; Almine Rech Gallery; David Teiger; and Fern and Lenard Tessler.
Image: Jeff Koons, Fisherman Golfer, 1986. Stainless steel; 12 x 8 x 5 in. (30.5 x 20.3 x 12.7 cm). Edition no. 3/3. Julie and Edward J. Minskoff, © Jeff Koons
Communications Department at (212) 570-3633 or pressrsvp@whitney.org
Press preview: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 1:30–4:30 pm. The artist will be present. Light refreshments will be served.
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York
Hours: Wen-Sun 11am-6pm Fri 11am-9pm
Admission: General admission $20| Ages 19–25, 65 and over, Full-time students $16| 18 and under, Members Free