The King of Pop (Art)

Jeff Koons’s larger-than-life artworks—which include the monumental Balloon Dog (1994-2000) and 12 foot, floral Puppy (2001)—are among the most memorable (and expensive) of the last three decades. His central obsession is with kitsch ephemera—plastic toys, vacuum cleaners, inflatables and pornography—but he has also made a toy of his own public profile in works such as Made in Heaven (1991)—a set of photographs of Koons copulating with his then-wife, Illona Staller. Recently, Koons’s studio has been producing complex, layered paintings, mixing Lichtenstein-style alpha screen textures with images of plastic superhero toys and surreal images culled from newsprint. He will be showing new paintings at the Gagosian, New York, from November 14.