Jeff Koons

Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles
Private Collection, Switzerland
Sale: Phillip's de Pury & Company, New York, Contemporary Art (Part 1), 11 November 2004, Lot 18
Michael Crichton, Los Angeles
Sale: Christie's, New York, Works from the Collection of Michael Crichton, 11 May 2010, Lot 1
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Los Angeles, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Luxury and Degradation, 1986

K. Levin, 'His Best Shot', Voice Magazine, October 1986, p. 96
Daniella Salvioni, 'Interview with Mc Collum and Koons', FLASHART, December 1986 - January 1987, p. 66, illustration of another example in colour
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Horn of Plenty: Sixteen Artists from NYC, 1989, p. 51, illustration of another example in colour
Exhibition Catalogue, San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Jeff Koons, 1992, p. 11, no. 3, illustration of another example in colour
Jeff Koons, The Jeff Koons Handbook, London 1992, p. 157
Angelika Muthesius, Ed., Jeff Koons, Cologne 1992, p. 166, no. 9, illustration of another example in colour
Benedikt Taschen, Jeff Koons: Postcard Book, Cologne 1992, n.p., illustration of another example
Exhibition Catalogue, Bielefeld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Jeff Koons: Pictures 1980-2002, p. 22, illustration of another example in colour
Hans Werner Holzwarth, Ed. Jeff Koons, Cologne 2007, p. 183, 193, 200, 206-7, and 600, illustration of another example in colour
Exhibition Catalogue, Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Jeff Koons: Celebration, 2008, pp. 48 and 109, no. 11, illustration of another example in colour
Hans Werner Holzwarth, Ed., Jeff Koons, Cologne 2009, pp. 188, 193, 198, 204-5, and 586, illustration of another example in colour
Frankfurt, Liebieghaus, Jeff Koons. The Sculptor, 2012, illustration of another example in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Cast in gleaming stainless steel and containing a fifth of Jim Beam bourbon, Jim Beam – Model A Ford Pickup Truck hails from Jeff Koons’ 1986 series Luxury and Degradation, whose theme is the marketing and sale of alcohol. The series comprises two classes of objects: liquor advertisements reprinted in oil-based ink on canvas, and domestic stainless steel sculptures cast after decanters, mixers, and other home serving paraphernalia. Regal China, a division of Jim Beam, produced porcelain decanters after icons of American industry such as Ford cars and nineteenth-century steam trains as kitsch ‘collectibles’, and upon spying them in a shop window Koons immediately recognised their potential as readymades.  After casting the objects, Koons delivered them to Jim Beam to be filled with liquor: “You could open it and drink the bourbon, but you would end up ruining the work. It would be destroyed, because the soul of the piece is really the bourbon” (the artist quoted in:  Angelika Muthesius, Ed., Jeff Koons, Cologne 1992, p. 196). Jim Beam - Model A Ford Pickup Truck brilliantly articulates Koons’ critique of American advertising - and by extension, its promise of the American Dream - and numbers among the definitive late 1980s works which cemented his rise to international fame.

Luxury and Degradation significantly marks the first occasion when Koons employed polished stainless steel in his oeuvre, a material which today emblematises his idiom. For Koons, its polished sheen, mimicking precious metals such as gold or silver, offers a summation of the tension between appearances and reality - particularly economic reality. He explains: “…I also like the fake luxury of the stainless steel. It has always been the luxury of the proletariat. It was to seduce” (the artist quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Jeff Koons: Celebration, 2008-09, p. 106). His seduction is complex, closely paralleling the semiotic machinations of the advertising industry, which Koons regards critically even as he appropriates its imagery and semantics to capture a broad audience. Concerned to diminish cultural hierarchies and expand the relevance of his artistic practice, Koons has said: “I want to have impact on people’s lives. I want to communicate to as wide a mass as possible. And the way to communicate to the public right now is through TV and advertising. The art world is not effective right now” (the artist quoted in: Angelika Muthesius, Op.cit., p. 77). Luxury and Degradation revealed the artist’s acuity in navigating these waters, offering an incisive critique of the deception inherent to consumer culture.

Studying diverse liquor advertisements, Koons observed: “the advertising industry targets an audience and how differently they’ll use abstraction, depending on your income…. the more money comes into play, the more abstract” (the artist quoted in: Hans Werner Holzwarth, Ed., Jeff Koons, Cologne 2009, p. 184). Within a panoramic survey of this visual culture, Jim Beam – Model A Ford Pickup Truck brilliantly highlights the abstract ideologies in play: Jim Beam’s appeal to nationalism by utilising a Ford vehicle; the validation of mass production, by association with one of the earliest and (then) best-selling cars; and even an appeal to religious iconography via “a direct link with religious relics, which are polished too” which notably contain a secret, mysteriously powerful substance hidden inside (the artist quoted in: Angelika Muthesius, Op.cit., p. 71). Forcefully debunking the mythology of contemporary advertising, and revealing the techniques of manipulation levied against American consumers - even as he appropriates them for his own purposes -Jim Beam – Model A Ford Pickup Truck compellingly epitomises Koons’ signature post-Pop aesthetic.