Microcinema DVDs - Jeff Koons Show, The

2010-09-01 A.V. Club
By Noel Murray

If artist Jeff Koons had never said a word about himself or his work, he might not have developed a reputation as a huckster and a boor among so many in the art world. Then again, if Koons had clammed up, he also likely wouldn’t have been able to command a seven-figure payday for an explicit sculpture of himself having sex with his Italian porn-star wife. Alison Chernick’s documentary The Jeff Koons Show surveys Koons’ career to date, emphasizing the “show” part of her title. She begins with a 1992 Koons interview in which he claims that only Picasso and Marcel Duchamp are in his league as 20th-century artists, adding “I’m ending the 20th century. There’s no one out there doing what I’m doing.” Then she cuts to one of his works: a set of inflatable monkeys cast in aluminum. As arresting as the sculpture is—and it does undeniably catch the eye—it’s also so garish that it prompts viewers to wonder how much Koons’ ability to sell himself has played a role in his success.

But Chernick, who made the similar documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint, isn’t out to damn Koons. If anything, The Jeff Koons Show serves as an explication of the soft-spoken, polite, well-dressed Koons, and evidence of how an artist’s personal story can be integral to understanding his art. Chernick interviews curators, critics, and other artists along with Koons himself, all of whom walk viewers through the arc of Koons’ work, from the show where he placed brand-new vacuum cleaners in plastic cases to the one where he suspended basketballs in water (surrounded by Nike posters), and beyond. Chernick’s point seems to be that it’s impossible to understand Koons’ appropriation of heartland kitsch—or his apparent raging narcissism—without seeing how each new piece built and commented on what came before, while always working in reaction to what other artists were doing.

So while Koons may say that his inflatable monkeys are a comment on “systems,” or that he uses recognizable brands so people will see those brands in the future and think of Jeff Koons, critics with more perspective can note that Koons’ interest in using colorful children’s toys corresponds with a time when he was separated from his son. And for those who don’t buy the argument that a piece of art needs to be more than what we can see with our eyes, painter Julian Schnabel offers a more prosaic defense of Koons: “What does an artist do? He points and says ‘Look at this.’”

Key features: A fascinating, too-short five-minute look at an art show Koons curated from the collection of an offbeat Greek art-lover.

2010-09-01 Flip Side
By Erin McCracken

The documentary, "The Jeff Koons Show" will be released on DVD today. Director Alison Chernick said that the one-hour documentary, which was commissioned by Rainbow Media, originally aired on Gallery HD in 2004. It focuses on the life and work of Koons, told through the perspective of Koons, curators, gallerists, and fellow artists including Chuck Close and Julian Schnabel.

Koons, a York County native, started art lessons at the age of 7. On Saturday mornings, his mother and father would drive him to his teacher's York home. He would sit in the basement and sketch flowers with charcoal and pastels. In 2008, his metal sculpture "Balloon Flower," sold for .7 million, then the most ever paid for a work by a living artist. In April, Koons was in York to accept his Distinguished Arts Award during the Governor's Awards for the Arts .

Chernick, a Manhattan-based independent filmmaker and director for Voyeur Films, has done work for MTV, The History Channel and National Geographic. Chernick said it took about a year to shot and edit the "The Jeff Koons Show." For the project, she said that she talked extensively with Koons about his pieces including "Flowers" and "Puppy."

2010-08-17 DVD Talk
By Casey Burchby

Alison Chernick's one-hour documentary about Jeff Koons strikes a generally admiring tone in tracking the career of the accomplished and hugely famous visual artist. The film hits the highlights of his varied and ever-evolving portfolio of projects, from his earliest show, "The New," which featured spotless household appliances carefully displayed in pristine glass vitrines, and his world-famous oversized "Puppy," made of live flowers, and right up to his more recent "inflatables" of "Celebration" - cast-steel balloon animals and toys. All of Koons' art enshrines elements of American pop culture in forms that are inert, gargantuan, and "perfect." Koons uses enormously expensive methods of fabrication for his complex pieces, processes that are made even more expensive by his perfectionism, which results in casting and re-casting pieces until they meet his exacting vision. The huge expenses associated with the creation of his art - along with the unmistakably eye-catching boldness of his work - are reflected in the prices they fetch at auction, which often reach tens of millions of dollars.

In The Jeff Koons Show, Chernick mostly allows Koons to speak for himself, although she also includes commentary from fellow artists such as Chuck Close and Julian Schnabel, each of whom interestingly qualifies his admiration of Koons. Koons' own comments about his art tend to be simplistic, filled with nonsensical jargon and self-congratulation. Listening to him, I had the distinct impression that he didn't know what the hell he was doing - which can't possibly be true. The man is too successful to be a fool. But I do find his approach opportunistic, taking Warhol's more astute and "observational" approach to pop culture - an approach that highlighted the rapidity and ubiquity of mass production - and perverting it through the obscene amounts of money and time spent "perfecting" otherwise disposable artifacts from American pop culture.

Koons has a uniquely American point of view, capturing the essence of pop culture and converting into pieces that are bright, colorful, and popular. His art is also a business that he has keenly turned into enormous personal wealth. Koons' choices of subject matter can be seen as cynical, as he often capitalizes upon imagery that is already recognizable - Michael Jackson, Popeye, kitschy clowns and toys - and appropriates them for these objects. But these objects, in their native state, are made very cheaply; Koons interprets and re-makes them using the most elaborate and expensive processes imaginable. Perhaps this meant as some sort of ironic statement; I think it one of the more ridiculous manifestations of the already lazy and indulgent era of post-modernism.

After wading through Koons' more aggravating work - particularly his unconscionably awful series "Made in Heaven," which consists of images of Koons and his wife, the Italian porn star known as Cicciolina, having sex - there are some gems to be found. I can't deny the strange, fantastic, commanding power of seeing "Puppy" in real life. And his early work with vitrines mostly succeeded in suggesting some unspoken, indescribable power behind mundane things like vacuum cleaners and basketballs. Chernick does a solid job in providing an overview of Koons' career and his significance as an artist. At just under an hour, the documentary could have easily been longer, with more about the way Koons' career developed and about his supporters and detractors, of which there are many of both.

The DVD

Image
The enhanced 1.78:1 transfer is fair to good. New footage fares much better than archival material, which in some cases has PAL origins. Colors are generally bright and solid, and digital artifacts are minimal.

Sound
The stereo track is serviceable, with good balance and some dynamic use of music. Voices are clear, which is the single most important thing for this documentary.

Bonus Content
There is an additional short piece by Chernick about a recent exhibition curated by Koons. It runs about four minutes.

Final Thoughts

Whether you love Jeff Koons' work or hate it, Alison Chernick's documentary is informative and engaging. It's a solid overview of this important artist's career to date, and well worth a look. Recommended.

2010-08-17 nationofartists.com
By Elliot V. Kotek

Heralded for exploiting art-branding to the extent that Andy Warhol celebrated celebrity, Jeff Koons has only one equal in contemporary art - his UK counterpoint, Damien Hirst. Their dueling (and dizzying) art auction hauls rival the greats of their industry. Despite their relative youth, each has become dazzlingly well-known and wealthy well within his lifetime.

Always interesting is the provenance not only of a piece of work, but of the artist himself. Chernick does well to share Koons's background, a father who was an interior decorator in Philadelphia, a marriage to Cicciolina, inspirations drawn from Koons appealing to his son. In a sense, however, Chernick's adulation of her subject seems to suppress a true exploration of the artist's sense of place; Koons is not asked what he thinks of his contemporaries, nor is Koons quizzed about the future of his work or from where he sees potential rivals emanating.

Chernick's film, therefore, remains more of an homage to Koons than a discussion to the overall meaningfulness of Koons's work in the greater art timeline. Koons is given the opportunity to explain himself, and the intent behind his work, but he is never challenged to defend his work or to formulate opinions onthe works of those with whom he shares the contemporary kingdom.

There is no doubt that Duchamp was a great inspiration, and Koons refers to him in this doc as the "grandfather of the 20th Century." Magritte, Dali and Rauschenberg each get mentions, and although Koons himself states the following fact, it seems genuine and important - Koons is a "lover of art." As goofball as his pieces might seem to some, the root of the works, like that of all great commentators on society, is based in history and place. Like Steve Martin's absurdist comedy, or Basquiat's philosophy, Koons and company reside far above the often ignorant pop-culture ephemera of our time. Koons knows from where he came.

That Koons was (and remains) ambitious is also exposed full-frontally in this film. From moment one, working behind the desk at MoMA, it's apparent that there was never a moment when Koons wasn't working his way up the art food chain. That he sojourned from MoMA to wall street brokering might shock some people, but is consistent with Koons serving the master currency to ensure his art received the financing it then required.

Chernick shows the Koons studio with its litany of worker bees executing his lavish visions, but the film never addresses the factory atmosphere, nor speaks with the minions at work in his studio busily producing and reproducing the work envisioned by the master. And, so, we're left wondering what those relationships are like. Is it all by direction? Is there any collaboration? Any particular new muse?

Whether expressing himself via ceramic sculptures, pocketless billiards tables, aluminum balloon animals, lust-filled billboards or 60,000-flower stem statues, Koons continues to live large, create large, and to consume the contemporary art scene he formerly held hostage. Chernick's fundamental role in helming the documentary is further impressed by the engagement of the comments of art world superstars Julian Schnabel, Ingrid Sischy,Chuck Close, the Village Voice's Jerry Saltz and dealer Mary Boone (who was one of the first to show Koons's work, surprisingly, on the recommendation of fellow aritsts Schnabel and David Salle).

Described as illogical and poetic, Koons's appropriation of labeling, packaging, advertising, entertainment and commerce deftly presents the artist's philosophies in a soothing state of clarity consistent withthe artist's voice. Chernick's film will deepen the audience's understanding of Koons's work, and enable them to identify and relate to his work in a more meaningful relationship. If you weren't a fan of Koons before, Chernick's work makes a sound case for enlightenment to the dazzling brand who is the man, and gives meaning to the mania that surrounds the work.

P.S. The bonus footage on the DVD is consisted of Koons briefly discussing his curation of the works of renowned collector Dakis Joannou for the 2010 "Skin Fruit" show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. The inherent importance of this extra footage is that it updates the DVD from Chernick's 2004 film to the present day.