{ Madonna photographed by Steven Meisel, Vanity Fair, 1992 | more | “As she nears 50, Madonna is searching for her true self.” }

{ Jeff Koons, Girl with Dolphin and Monkey, 2006 }

Ilona Staller, a former European porn star and politician, has sued her ex-husband, artist Jeffrey Koons, for millions of dollars in child support.

In papers filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, Staller says Koons owes about 1.5 million euros, or about $2.4 million on Wednesday, for support of their 15-year-old son, Ludwig Maximilian Koons.

Staller’s papers, filed late Tuesday, say the child support payments of 15,000 euros a month were ordered by an Italian court in June 2007. Koons was represented in that court, which ultimately gave custody of Ludwig to his mother, court papers say.

The amount Koons owes covers October 1998 through December 2007, court papers say. They say the artist has paid 191,426 euros for child support, leaving a balance owed of about 1.5 million euros.

The Hungarian-born Staller made X-rated films in Italy under the name La Cicciolina before becoming a member of Italy’s parliament for five years. She and Koons, 53, met in the early 1990s, when he hired her to pose for sexually explicit photos, paintings and sculptures. They married in Budapest, Hungary, in June 1991.

Following their divorce in New York in 1994, Koons was given custody of the then-infant Ludwig. A judge ordered that the child stay in New York, but in June 1994 Staller evaded Koons’ security guards and fled to Italy with the boy.

{ AP/1010 WINS | Bloomberg }

photo { Jeff Koons, Made in Heaven, 1989 | Lithograph billboard }

{ Jeff Koons, Woman in a tub, 1988 | porcelain, edition of 3 }

{ “Woman in a tub was based on a postcard. I wanted the piece to be cropped like a photograph. It isn’t a violent cropping.” — Jeff Koons | Taschen }

{ American Apparel ad | retail locations Miami & Key West }

1907. Picasso: Art doesn’t imitate life anymore

{ Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 | oil on canvas }

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) depicts five prostitutes in a brothel, in the Avignon Street of Barcelona (Spain). Picasso created over one hundred sketches and studies in preparation for this work, one of the most important in the early development of Cubism. Within the narrative of early modern art, it is a pivotal work in the development of modern art, widely held as a seminal work. Picasso called it “my first exorcism painting.” Read more { Wikipedia | On-line Picasso Project | MoMA, NY }

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{ Jeff Koons, Triple Elvis, 2007 | Oil on canvas }

{ Ian Hart | Skyy Vodka ads placed in the midst of pornographic spreads } + previously { Vodka }

{ Jeff Koons, Dogpool (Panties), 2003 | previously: Jeff Koons: An Equilibrium Which Is Not Permanent But Very Pure }

{ Jeff Koons, Dogpool (Panties), 2003 }

Jeff Koons is a seminal figure in recent American art, but his work still seems to infuriate some audiences. Writer Douglas Coupland, an art student at the time of Koons’ meteoric rise in the early 80s, tries to figure out why.

I once had a discussion with a friend: we were trying to figure out what it would be like to go through life without a sense of humor. By this, we meant going through life being incapable - in a medical and biological sense - of understanding funniness, in much the same way that the colorblind can never understand the concept of ‘green’. Imagine: you’d be standing amid all sorts of everyday situations - around water coolers, in shop queues and the like - and for no apparent reason, people around you would suddenly erupt into bizarre brays and coughs and parps of air. You’d ask them what made them emit such noises, and they’d tell you something called ‘a joke’, and you’d stare back at them and say, ‘So? What’s the big deal?’

I think this idea is germane when approaching the work of Jeff Koons, the quintessential 80s artist. His body of work has survived for going on two decades now, its financial value ever escalating and its art historical value remaining high (in many ways escalating right along with its investment status).

So why should such an established artist inspire fantasies about lacking a sense of humor? Well, in the most respectful way, Koons can seem like a joke.

{ eyestorm | Continue reading }

{ Jeff Koons, Girl with Dolphin and Monkey, 2006 }

New York City, October 1986

Ottmann: Where do you get the ideas for your work?
Koons: It’s a natural process. Generally I walk around and I see one object and it affects me. I can’t just choose any object or any theme to work with. I can be confronted by an object and be interested in a specific thing about it, and the context develops simultaneously. I never try to create a context artificially. I think about my work every minute of the day.

{ Jeff Koons, Elephant (Yellow), 2004 }

Ottmann: How far are you involved in the actual production of your work?
Koons: I’m basically the idea person. I’m not physically involved in the production. I don’t have the necessary abilities, so I go to the top people, whether I’m working with my foundry — Tallix — or in physics. I’m always trying to maintain the integrity of the work. I recently worked with Nobel prize winner Richard P. Feynman. I also worked with Wasserman at Dupont and Green at MIT. I worked with many of the top physicists and chemists in the country.
Ottmann: Could you elaborate the term “integrity”?

Ottmann: How do you manage to get all the legal rights?
Koons: I come out of a background of, at one time, being the Senior Representative for the Museum of Modern Art. I was also a commodity broker on Wall Street for six years, so I have experience in dealing with people on a professional level. I had only one company in my last project that turned me down. And in each company I have to deal first with them, then with their lawyers, and in some cases with their advertising firms and their printers. { Continue reading }

{ Jeff Koons, Tulips, 2004 }

Walking into Jeff Koons’ studio is more like walking into a car factory or NASA. There are men in white suits hovering around objects, tag teams of painters on ladders, and paint swatches enough for neighborhoods of remodeled homes. Then there’s the clean room, where inflatable sculptures are polished and tended to behind clear plastic curtains and sealed doors. It’s Elizabeth Arden meets Vasari . Just a normal day for Jeff Koons and his 50 plus assistants. There’s a gentle, calm feeling throughout the studio despite the fact that orders are very clearly being given left and right. { Jeff Koons in his New York studio ~ photos & interview }

{ Jeff Koons, New Shelton Wet/Dry Double-Decker, 1981 | Jeff Koons, Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank, 1985 | Jeff Koons, Woman in Tub, 1988 }

photo { Greg Gorman, Jeff Koons, Los Angeles, 1988, 1988 }

Jeff Koons asked Greg Gorman to take his photograph after seeing one of his portraits of David Bowie. ‘I want to look like a high-profile celebrity, living on the edge,’ he told the photographer. This sparked a long-term collaboration: Gorman also shot Koons’ series of ‘Art Magazine Ads’ (1988-89), which Koons exhibited as artworks in their own right.

{ “Not pretending to be the real MOMA in New York” | launched in 2000 by Craig Robinson/Flip Flop Flyin | 4 rooms, 17 artwork | Visit }

Nietzsche: ‘What is happiness? — The feeling that power increases — that resistance is overcome.’

artwork { Jeff Koons, New Shelton Wet/Dry Double-Decker, 1981 }