Jeff Koons & Pharrell: Affirmation Abstraction Acceptance | ARTST TLK™ Ep. 11 Full | Reserve Channel

you I was trained to be able to create an illusion that we draw vases of flowers from the time that I was a child looking at those paintings you would probably see the promise in that and that child's eyes that I absolutely had no idea the power of art what art could be you kind of feel like it comes from somewhere else they aren't in you it's about your possibilities your future it should be like people's daily affirmation in the end you really don't care about objects and you care about people and that's really kind of the highest state that art can take you to this guy my hero Jeff Koons is the most successful American artist working today whose sculpture tulips sold in 2012 for the second highest price ever for the work of a living artist his 40-foot tall puppy which displayed at Rockefeller Plaza in 2000 was deemed the public art event of the decade his first full career retrospective is planned for next summer at the Whitney Museum in New York thank you for being here a college classmate said that you were the best draftsman at school was drawing your first step with art I started taking art lessons when I was about 7 years old you know I was trained to be able to create an illusion that we draw bases of flowers from the time that I was a child or barns out in the field in perspective but I absolutely had no idea the power of art what art could be and when I was in high school I'd always go to art class during like a study hall or any free times and I would make things but art was still something that I think I associated with anxiety because it was about performing trying to kind of make something well and it wasn't until this kind of understanding the very beginning of art school that arts this great connector to all the human disciplines so effortlessly I mean anything can connect you but aren't so easily connection philosophy sociology aesthetics physics just pneumatics mathematics yeah yeah the idea to in a way be a little bit of a dilettante and be involved with all these areas of my life its thrill as a young artist you replicated old master paintings did you still feel creative while you were doing that my father was an interior decorator and they had a furniture store he would say Jeff you know my one client would really love a painting like this Watteau and you know would you want to make a you know a copy of this and it wasn't a copy that this is the motto should I sign these Jeff Koons etc but I would paint these paintings for my dad and it was fantastic because I developed kind of a sense of confidence and my dad would put them in a showroom window and it was really where I exhibited for the first time looking at those paintings you probably see the promise in that and that child's eyes and Anna Charles work you know they're your formative years right the formative but you know arts really about freedom and exercising your freedom and so this was just more of a technical aspect I really learned aesthetics there and I would go in I'd realize that one day a room would have the decor the furniture maybe of a paneled librarian do you have a dark couch and maybe some red chairs and you would have all the kind of trimmings of a library and maybe I go back two weeks later and it'd be kind of French Provincial living room and so I realized that colors and textures could really affect the the way that you feel and I think the sense of a voice of an object and just something displaying itself for what it is you know a lamp would just be there and so I think my involvement with the ready-made comes from also looking at objects ashtrays things in this showroom and just kind of picking up on their own little voice in a way of displaying what they were it's almost like when those items are in the room like when they're part of an ensemble of like a room we walked right past them but when those things are singular and by themselves you cause a perceiver to look at it again look at the dimensions again look at the texture look at the color I've always been an admirer of like your ability to single out an item and give it its angular and dimensional just do I think what people are really highlighting and what they're really that's the perfect word yeah that's what you do well but they're they're getting a sense of their own lives their own interaction with these things it's not about those objects but it's it's about their own kind of acceptance of of who they are and their own possibility and what excites them and this sense of freedom and then to go on to kind of maybe a pure state of idea when you were 17 you cold-called Salvador Dali which is amazing were you shocked when he responded he was fantastic it was very very generous and for El my mother saw an article in the newspaper these Dali spent half his time in New York at least during the winter at this same Regis Hotel so I called him up and they put me through to him and he answered the phone and I told him I was a young artist I would like to to visit him and he said sure and he invited me to go to the node ler gallery he had a show on at the time and he had fantastic paintings I remember when I was trying to photograph him he's you know putting his moustache up and you know telling me that you know I can't hold this pose forever kid you know and he's playful generous and I just remember feeling like you know I would love to do this I would love to be involved with art all the time and you know I can participate I can I can do this too I just through that type of generosity which is you know spending a couple minutes with a stranger you and I think that a lot of young artists they believe they would like to participate but not all the time do they really want to butt in it because if you really want to you will you just you just do it if you want to be part of the dialogue part of the fabric you just you participate that's what I always loved about the avant-garde the idea the avant-garde it was really that you know you could change your life and is about people interacting together people like Dali and Makka the I always just wouldn't be kind of part of this type of community that you know you could change your life you can affect the lives of others yes that's the most important thing for everyone to know because we all have it I just got to find it in the 1970s you moved to New York and we started selling your work like what was that time like well I finished art school and so I was 21 when I went to Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and then I went to the school of the Art Institute in Chicago and in Chicago I loved the Chicago images so I spent my last year there are love gym nuts work I'd befriended Ed Paschke and I was his studio assistant but I loved this work that was based in outsider art surrealism mhm hence this was really an area that I learned to trust it myself and go inward and then eventually I just wanted to connect with my generation so coming to New York at 21 was really to sit down and just intermix with people my own generation you know you sit down you have a lot of beers over and over again with people discussing what's important what you kind of like to do with your life and you know eventually things start to to gel and you start to take action you kind of start to get into a kind of metaphysical state you focused on surrealist work in college but have you abandoned that influence completely or no the first thing you have to do is an individual in life whether an artist or just an individual is learn how to trust in yourself and surrealism was a vehicle that helped me learn how to trust in myself then automatically you want to go outward then you to start to to look around you so I think one of the reasons I have also worked with ready-made objects know kind of metaphors for people because in the end you really don't care about objects right you care about people and so you learn to trust in yourself and then you learn to trust in others and that's really kind of the highest state that art can take you to so you're tapping into something what is your way of doing that I just recently discovered that some of iron Stein's biggest and best papers were written when he was tapping in and he called those this process thought experiments for him and for DaVinci they would put a candle at the foot of their bed and look at the shadow of the candle light on the ceiling and they would tap in that's like Plato's cave there's another Plato's another one Socrates is another one I'm finding to everybody that I love and respect they all tap in somehow and then they're able to do it on call like someone says okay Jeff make something yeah you're gonna make something that's great but in terms of the thing that blows your socks off you kind of feel like it comes from somewhere else but I would say generally it's more of a process of things resonating I mean I'll get out this oh that's interesting and then I'll start to think about that and so it's a trigger for you it's a trail so I'll start thinking about then the the kind of the acting on it the exercising of freedom to me is really important and it's you know kind of more absolute consciousness of what the capabilities of your life art is unrestricted a kind of freedom of clarity of one's own possibilities of gesture this is really where my art I'm always seeking it to take me to the kind of the highest level of this type of freedom so are you saying that you live in the subconscious basically and you're constantly in that space because if you do I think I'm gonna follow you right now no but I would say that it's kind of shared I'm always very very open to archetypal things things that are just presenting themselves as being relevant and and I trust in those things and one of the things that I try to do again is keep everything in play hmm always to be accepting of everything and to make no judgments about anything and no matter what it is whether it's this class whether it's this book or that chair that everything is perfect for what it is and that there's no hierarchical type of judgments and in leaving everything in play everything's accessible everything is there to be used and to be incorporated in but if when people start to make judgments you start to limit sure your possibilities you limit the the connection that maybe that chair there could make with this glass sure instead of keeping everything open everything going and in play that should be like people's daily affirmation what you just said what differentiated your work from what was really popular in the 80s oh that's it's hard to say because there's a lot of you know there's fantastic work being made all the time and every artist has a kind of a different voice in their work and it all comes together as one and you know I love everything sure I would say that with my work I think that I was trying to tell a narrative and that the work was about I think transcendence of this and self-acceptance and through self-acceptance you're able to start to go outward in this journey of kind of acceptance of others I think that my work was also very very conscious I was trying to share that transcendence with the viewer and I believe very much in the beholders share and the beholder share is that an artwork is completed in the viewer the object is to some kind of transponders no reaction to emulation yes sir and the arts in you it's about your possibilities your future and so maybe my work was starting to have this conversation in a way that people could pick up on it's just amazing that uh that you see it that way because it's Tony art is totally reactionary it's it's nothing but an object if it's not and it starts through the sensations sure and and it's so exciting to be connected to your body but then you can go and stimulate the mind and that there's there's feeling there too and to have the dialogue of starting with a really strong physical sensation and then to go into philosophical areas and that's really what I find the most kind of pleasing unites both so after your divorce with a loner scholar who was the subject of your made in heaven series you destroyed a lot of that collection is that something you regret uh you know I destroyed a lot of work as we were involved in a custody dispute for my son Ludwick that sure that we had together so you know I believe in a lot of those works and so yes I'm sad that I destroyed some of the work but at the time I felt that I could try to protect my son's environment that he would grow up in and so I destroyed them but there's some of my favorite works I made a painting alone as it's has a nice dialogue with core Bay's origins of the world and for all I would say that that work I was trying to communicate to people again about self-acceptance and embracing yourself and I was using the body sure cuz I think people you know distance themselves through their own body and instead of embracing who they are and that's true like a lot of people why don't you want to see everybody else but you don't want to enjoy or appreciate what it is who you are as a person there's a place for every dialogue so so you know the made in heaven work I was trying to I saw the painting by Masaccio the expulsion hmm and it's where Adam and Eve are being thrown out of the garden and there's such guilt and shame on their faces you know it's a Masaccio painting so I wanted to make a body of work that would help remove that kind of guilt and shame and so the intentions of the work you know are very good so even though it's very direct and kind of some of the images are kind of explicit there's a place for adults to look at those type of images and to be involved with that dialogue so I really don't have any regrets on that work you know I think context is everything yeah and that's the thing it was a there was definitely a true line but it's awesome to have to see you know someone that you love will come like your inspiration and and and on a metaphysical level that's what you're saying you know I was a much more overarching theme there than just flesh well Ilona had no guilt about her body she had no shame about her body and so you know she was able to present that very clear link when you were selling tickets and memberships to the MoMA in your 20s um did you learn about what you felt like your audience wanted you feel like that touching more when I was selling memberships I would would come to work and I would wear a bow tie and I would have another necktie underneath kind of a sponge bow tie and I would wear maybe a sequin vest and so I did a little bit of as a performance Pisgah I enjoyed interacting with with people I think it's a nice thing to feel commitment to your community I try to teach my kids that everybody's depending on them you know to to do something and whatever they really do to well do well that other people are depending on them to to help them in that area that's good I'll tell my son that tomorrow your production celebration included now-iconic balloon dogs and tulips why do these pieces become so coveted like why do I want them so bad so the reflective surface I think comes from starting in my father's showroom there were mirrors that were there but what I love about a reflective surface is that it affirms it's about you you know you move all of a sudden the abstraction on the surface moves and so it's about affirmation and an abstraction and the other part that's interesting about people responding to balloons is they really turn everything inside out I've always loved Kierkegaard and existentialism and either-or you know being in nothingness and so with our human bodies there's kind of a sense of density you know were the brains there's blood guts internally and when you think about external space it's kind of very vacuous it's just kind of air out here and but if you look at a balloon or an inflatable all of a sudden there's a reversal and the inside of the inflatable becomes quite vacuous it's empty it's just air and externally there's just a little greater density gradient where it because the air becomes slightly thicker because that becomes emptier inside and so it gets a person more confidence to be in the world and we're inflatable you know every time you know you take a breath you know you inflate and that's a symbol of optimism and that's what your last breath that's death it's right you know so and these things are in this permanent state of you know kind of symbol of the eternal love kind of defeating death it's called raisi who was Jeff Koons more like Popeye Elvis Michael Jackson or the Hulk you know I'd have to say looking at you know my own hands right here mm-hmm I'd have to say Popeye and I would say that because pop I'd to me really I think represents like my father and my father's generation but also Popeye transforms needs the spinach and he transforms and arts the spinach and you know art can transform your life so I I've good with the Popeye Andy Moses told Vanity Fair that you're a risk taker what risks you feel like you're taking now well I'm trying to just make the things that I really want to make and that's really the hardest thing to do in life yeah what you really want to do the most you almost avoid the most because it has such importance to you I'm not a highly anxious person but I'm aware of how anxiety keeps people from doing what they want to do so I'm always just trying to kind of remove any anxiety that exists and I think you do that through acceptance I'm always trying to just not make any judgments about things except everything and you know to move forward with my work the risk is I guess actually not to do it what would you say to a person who you know 50 60 years old really good at what they were doing but they're trying to find a way to sort of dial it down or you know approach the sunset or ease their way out every great artist continues to make really great work and so you know if you look at that name and they make great work right up to the end if you look at Picasso right up to the end Cezanne I mean everybody who's really a good artist so you know if somebody wants to continue and they want to evolve as an artist you can the idea of an artist having a few good years in their 20s or 30s and then they fall off that's for people that aren't really committed that's right hand but if you're really committed it's absolutely continued growth in your life and expansion you know possibility what do you consider your finest work you know I would have to you know the family is very very important I would say my own being of understanding a kind of a responsibility to to humanity to my community and to try to be kind of the best human being that I can be and in that being an artist is part of that and you know to try to live to my potential so you'd say your finest work is your intention of maybe not I mean I really believe in future and potential but I would think that having a concept of my community I feel something that was handed down through my my family and I feel that main maintaining that connection as valuable very important aspect of my life I have my limitations sure but you know I I deal with my limitations but I want to be engaged and you know I be in the dialog so whenever I see like always like paying like the highest compliment that I can and I always watch you slightly cringe at it because it's not necessarily what you want to believe because you're so engaged into it and I always in my year at level of humanity you know humility excuse me I mean there's a super high level of humanity to but your humility is like above and beyond and it's always a pleasure to to see you and just to have conversations with that learn so much it's awesome and myself but I've really enjoyed this thank you so much means it's awesome it's great thank you sorry thank you good when I was trying to photograph in easy you know putting this mustache up and they you know telling me that I can't hold this pose forever kid I'm finding that everybody that I love and respect they all tap in somehow and then they're able to do it on call I made a painting a bonus it's has a nice dialogue with Corday's origins of the world I think that my work was also very very conscious I was trying to share that transcendence with the viewer it's about you you know you move all of a sudden the abstraction on the surface moves who is Jeff Koons more like Popeye Michael Jackson will Hulk I'd have to say Popeye because Popeye transforms hates the spinach and arts the spinach for our Williams here hi I'm joy Bryant I'm Eric Lee pear I'm talk--i likio I'm dr. Frank Lippmann they're all stuff on the table the host of across the board host of artists I'm host of hook up host of the show be well week be well weekend on the reserved Channel it's only on reserve did you know that you can follow my show on social media sites like Facebook Follow us on Twitter if you're a fan of my show hit the like button all of the above share me with your friends treat yourself go check out a new episode of my show hooked up and if you want to leave comments feedbacks ideas whatever love to hear from you leave a comment and if you don't want to miss the show be sure to subscribe the one aside down here where is it here not somewhere down here thanks for watching the reserve of color only on YouTube throw caution to the wind and ask yourself what rules [Music] you

Channel: Reserve Channel

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Keywords: Reserve, Channel, Reserve Channel, Uncommon, Content, UCP, extraordinary people, culture, celebrities, doctors, chefs, non-fiction, non fiction, original, ART011

Id: YcjqajvmkxM

Length: 26min 23sec (1583 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 21 2013