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Jeff Koons is currently one of the most important and successful artists in the world, and almost no other artist so closely represents the contemporary art cult and the close connection between art and the art market. Koons is known as a provocateur; his work has always triggered intense debates and he was the biggest star in the art world during the 1980s and early 1990s. Things became a little quieter around him later, but in the meanwhile, he has become one of the highest-paid artists of the present day, and his work is seen in countless exhibitions. Koons has invented himself as his own brand, of which both his work and his life are a part. This makes it almost necessary for us to include Koons in our series of shows on the Kult des Künstlers (Cult of the Artist).

The invitation to Jeff Koons to arrange the upper Hall of Mies van der Rohe’s building goes along with the fine tradition of preeminent artists’ presentations in the Neue Nationalgalerie.

Here, he will show his Celebration series. The artist began this series in 1994, and he has continued working on this complex of works to this very day, translating everyday objects-toys and gift items-into sculptures and paintings in brilliant colors and enormous sizes. Like Paul Klee, whose Klee Universe is also being shown simultaneously in the Neue Nationalgalerie, Koons also gives the theme of childhood a crucial role in his work, but in a way that is entirely different from Klee’s.

Christina Weiss
Chair of the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie

Peter-Klaus Schuster
General Director of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
and Director of the Nationalgalerie