Koons, Kitsch, & Kevin. #13/50
The aesthetics of Kitch, Jeff Koons, Pixelmon's Kevin, and the grift of cynicism.
In 1988, artist Jeff Koons fabricated three life-sized sculptures of Michael Jackson.
Based on a real photograph, “Michael Jackson & Bubbles” depicts Jackson reclining while his pet chimp sits on his lap.
Both wear matching golden military costumes.
By 1988, Jackson’s facial pigment had noticeably changed; in Koons’ work, he’s portrayed bone white, in porcelain, as a idealized German child. Koons added gold leaves at the base, reminiscent of flourishes on historical sculptures.
Koons wasn’t mocking Jackson, he wanted to make the popstar a religious icon. “If I could be anyone in the world,” Koons said repeatedly, “it would be Michael Jackson.”
Here’s the life-sized sculpture:
(This haunts my nightmares.)
Koons was/is a remarkably self-assured artist, the Adam Neumann (WeWork) of Modern Art — always selling, always spinning, always re-assuring the viewer by sanding off the difficult edges of life.
Weirdly, Koons was inspired by Michelangelo’s Piera which depicts Mary holding the body of her son, Jesus, after death.
Now, to be clear, this juxtaposition is not required to better understand the work. Koons exhibited the Jackson sculpture in series entitled “Banalities,” in which every piece was a 3-D reproduction from a photo.
There was no larger unifying theme.
Koons presented the works as parody — both a critique of mass production culture and a celebration of it. This artistic movement is kitsch, or art in bad taste.
Koons’ show had that unsettling quality of Internet memes: it was hard to tell how much he was in on the joke and how much he was making fun of the people who liked the joke.
Each sculpture had multiple editions, selling for above $250,000 each.
Koons made millions, selling art with intentionally bad taste, to 1980’s Wall Street brokers.
So the question we have to ask: is this an act of heroism, or of villainy?
Pixelmon
Pixelmon was a long-hyped, well-awaited mint. The project sold out at 3 ETH, raising $70m and promising a roadmap of utility for a future RPG game.
But, as we’ve discussed before, reveals don’t always go well. (See Edition 5 on the Mekaverse.)
The Pixelmon art, politely, sucked. It looked rushed, chunky, badly rendered. There were invisible NFTs post-render:
The vast consensus was that Pixelmon was a failure, if not an outright rug-pull.
And then someone scanned through the species meta-data.
Amongst names like Bruzier, Groot, and Piu Piu — one of the Pixelmon species was, inexplicably, named Kevin.
And then all hell broke loose.
On Kitsch
Koons’ “Banalities” show was well-received:
[Koons] uses religious symbols, Michael Jackson, Pink Panther, or [his wife] Cicciolina, and commodifies them with the help of gold, stainless steel, bright colors, and sweetness… and this is also the main principle of kitsch culture.
As a movement, Kitsch art drew from the Warhol era of pop art and the recent rise in postmodern works as objects of significant wealth. (Warhol and the subject value of art are subjects we’ve also discussed previously.)
Contemporary art can often strike the average viewer as shallow and austere — for example, you might have seen this piece, Comedian, from Art Basel Miami last year.
Three of them sold for $150,000 each.
This work is almost insultingly simple— but requires a lot of historical context and foreknowledge to “get it.” Thus, contemporary art can feels like it’s making fun of the viewer if they’re not well-read enough to understand.
By contrast, Kitsch doesn’t force you to think. There is no deeper meaning that can be derived because it’s not about thought. It is essentially unchallenging — if xanax were an art form.
Koons didn’t invent Kitsch, but he did recreate Andy Warhol’s mass-production techniques at a commercial scale. (Warhol’s Factory was messy, both in its physical art production and the counter-culture addicts who hung out there.)
Koons’ process is about the physical production, to erase all fingerprints of the artist. The pieces are weirdly difficult to make. Production is outsourced entirely to industrial production facilities, with Koons provided general directions on the image while obsessing over the technical details.
Koons based the “Banalities” sculptures on found pictures. Five of the photographers sued for copyright infringement, including Art Rogers whose postcard “Puppies” became “String of Puppies” below.
Koons’ legal team took the position that his work was a commentary on American Society and the subject was secondary. It was parody — he was making fun of the way Americans encounter random media in our lives, elevate it to a new status, and thus he created a new work separate from the original.
Koons lost this lawsuit and all of the other cases — it has become well cited in copyright law given his claim of fair use. But his rationale is a great definition for Kitsch Art.
Kitsch turns things that have no intrinsic value into cultural objects of desire and commercializes those items to be exchanged on a capitalist market.
Which leads me back to Kevin.
Kevin: Kitsch or Contemporary Art?
Several thousand people spent 3 ETH (~$8k) on the Pixelmon mint, sight unseen. When the reveal started, the panic selling began and the price for a Pixelmon sits right now is 0.25 ETH, a 90% decline in value. Except of course for one, which has a 6 ETH floor, a 100% increase.
For $15k, you can still acquire Kevin:
Hideously deformed, with a shock of pink hair and a lazy eye, Kevin was hailed as a “new kind of community mascot.”
There were dozens of derivatives made — Punks, Cool Cats, Azuki, MFers — all within about 48 hrs:
All together, these projects did over $3M of ETH in the days after the Kevin hype.
But, is it art?
A Case Against Cynicism
The hope of Web3 and NFTs, to me, is that it can foster new communities, inspire new forms of art, and change the way that creators get paid.
Art is folly — it is a losing battle against the forces of commerce and chaos in the world. And yet, it is a game worth playing because the stakes are so high.
As John Gardner wrote:
Art is essentially serious and beneficial, a game played against chaos and death, against entropy. It is a tragic game, for those who have the wit to take it seriously, because our side must lose; a comic game-or so a troll might say-because only a clown with sawdust brains would take our side and eagerly join in.
The deification of Kevin is not about the artist (Pixelmon) nor the quality of the art (Kevin), it’s about your intelligence.
It’s smug.
Any art that requires being “in on the joke” is thus not art, it’s just commercialized elitism. And we are way too early to have this much cynicism, if you really think we’re all going to make it.
While I am not generally drawn to Koons’ work, but I recognize it is in conversation with a longer tradition of great art.
Kevin is a fart in a crowded elevator while we’re all still on the ground floor.
We’re stuck with it for a while, but for God’s sake, please mind your manners.
NEXT TIME
Why Art is a Conversation
The Apes, Meebits, Punks consolidation
ApeCoin
TWEET OF THE MOMENT
Hubris doesn’t age well.
As always, I have so much more to tell you,
Paul
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More on Koons, Kitsch, and Kevin:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/people-spent-249k-on-pixelmon-nfts-then-they-saw-the-art/ar-AAUuXhu
https://www.owe.com/resources/legalities/30-jeff-koons-copyright-infringement/
https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/20767-jeff-koons-ushering-in-banality
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/11/art-and-cynicism/