Koons’s lobster is red,
His blow-ups are steel,
Of course, Koons’s work isn’t actually made by Koons: that nice float toy he picked up at the dollar store was transformed into a Major Work of Art by 90 elves diligently laboring in his New York factory. What Koons does is “the making of the idea,” Bonami says. “And there is effort in that.”
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It must be stressful, because Koons has often made it clear that he’s been on a long quest for psychic equilibrium and the carefree masturbation that comes with self-acceptance. Speaking—very calmly—to a packed auditorium on May 31, he retraced his career from his first day in Chicago, when he happened to meet Ed Paschke at a bar, through his vacuum cleaners under glass, to the outsize heart pendant that sold last year for $23 million and made him briefly the world’s most expensive living artist.
Fattened up by its association with Artropolis, like a goose headed for foie gras, Art Chicago overshot the mark and turned out to be—Whoa! Too big! Exhibitors at the event—the most extensive and prestigious of the five shows included in this year’s Artropolis, which drew 50,000 people to the Merchandise Mart on a single weekend—complain that collectors were overwhelmed by the number of booths, programs, and satellite fairs. And Mart organizers, who’d been operating under the impression that more is more, have been listening.
Finally, the Mart announced last week that it’s postponing the 2009 fair by a week, to May 1-4. The new date coincides with the opening of the Olafur Eliasson exhibit at the MCA, curated by the museum’s new director, Madeleine Grynsztejn—and may be close enough to the as yet unannounced opening of the Art Institute’s new Modern wing to allow for VIP peeks. That’s a combination that could lure those elusive big-spending collectors the art world is so heavily dependent on. Mart vice president Mark Falanga says moving New York’s Mart-owned Armory show up three weeks, to March 4-8, will create more breathing space between events, which should help boost attendance.
