Jeff Koons Jim Beam – Caboose 1986 Stainless steel and bourbon. 9 1/4 x 14 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. (23.5 x 36.8 x 16.8 cm). This work is from an edition of three plus one artist’s proof.
Provenance Private Collection Exhibited Los Angeles, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Luxury and Degradation, July – August, 1986 (another example exhibited) Literature A. Muthesius, ed., Jeff Koons Cologne, 1992, pl. 8, p. 73 (illustrated); R. Rosenblum, ed., The Jeff Koons Handbook, London/NewYork, 1992, p. 157; R. Emma Silverman, “Joint Custody forYour Monet,” Wall Street Journal Online, July 7, 2005 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay "To me stainless steel is the material of the Proletarian, it’s what pots and pans are made of. It’s a very hard material and it’s fake luxury. If these pieces were in silver, they would be absolutely boring.They have absolutely no desire to be in silver; they could not communicate in silver." For the famed 1986 exhibition Luxury and Degradation, Jeff Koons set out to make history in the art world. Following on the critically-acclaimed footsteps of his 1985 Equilibrium exhibit the year before, Koons’ new process investigated yet another aspect of contemporary society with his characteristic wit and resonance. Showcased in both LosAngeles and NewYork, Luxury and Degradation displayed life-size replicas of liquor advertisements and hand-made fabrications of alcohol-derived accoutrements.The combination sought to dazzle and belittle the very structures underlying the commodity of alcohol and its consumptive, corruptive forces.The present lot, Jim Beam – Caboose, a noted highlight from the show, displays Koons’ knack for recapturing mass-appeal in an attempt to expose the artifice behind advertising slogans and campaigns and the desires they invoke. It highlights not only Koons’ grand artistic aims of that decade but also the successful commercialization efforts gaining ground from the strength of the 1980s stock market. Luxury and Degradation was ultimately one of the most important and ambitious exhibitions Koons produced. The artist counterposes that which causes pleasure, through its comfortable indulgence, with dereliction of a moral and behavioral code, debasing and corrupting ones rank or character.As the artist describes, his show undertook the following themes from contemporary society: “I paralleled the alcoholic, the desire for alcohol, and the dependence on alcohol as an underlying debasement and degradation…The show was really telling people not to pursue luxury and to avoid all the dangers of degradation.” (Jeff Koons taken from T. Kellein, ed., Pictures Jeff Koons 1980-2002, NewYork, 2002, p. 21) Never one to shy away from criticizing contemporary society, Koons’ Luxury and Degradation utilizes media and industry to achieve his artistic aims. As Robert Rosenblum describes, “His wish to communicate with as wide an audience as possible and his belief that the way to do it now is through the media, ‘through TV and advertising, through the film and entertainment industries’ may sound disarmingly crass, but its combination of dumb innocence and shrewd calculation is clearly, for an artist born in the 1950s and emerging in the climate of the 1980s, less affectation than just plain honesty and commonsense for someone pursuing a career in the arts, including those high-minded art critics who are ever eager to expand their own fame and power through the media but who sneer aristocratically at Koons for doing the same thing,” (R. Rosenblum, “Notes on Jeff Koons ” The Jeff Koons Handbook, London/NewYork, 1992, p. 12). Luxury and Degradation is focused on issues of class and the consumption of alcohol.Yet one of the most compelling works in the series, the Jim Beam – Caboose, is actually a relic of childhood, a child’s toy train, but cast in stainless steel and filled with bourbon. Koons reminds us that for Americans, the ability to drink alcohol is considered the signifier and reward for growing up with this alluring, shimmering stainless steel prize. The object is a physical incarnation of the longing of youth to taste what they are not allowed. The liquor-filled toy is an emblem of forbidden adult acti
Jeff Koons Jim Beam – Caboose 1986 Stainless steel and bourbon. 9 1/4 x 14 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. (23.5 x 36.8 x 16.8 cm). This work is from an edition of three plus one artist’s proof.
Provenance Private Collection Exhibited Los Angeles, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Luxury and Degradation, July – August, 1986 (another example exhibited) Literature A. Muthesius, ed., Jeff Koons Cologne, 1992, pl. 8, p. 73 (illustrated); R. Rosenblum, ed., The Jeff Koons Handbook, London/NewYork, 1992, p. 157; R. Emma Silverman, “Joint Custody forYour Monet,” Wall Street Journal Online, July 7, 2005 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay "To me stainless steel is the material of the Proletarian, it’s what pots and pans are made of. It’s a very hard material and it’s fake luxury. If these pieces were in silver, they would be absolutely boring.They have absolutely no desire to be in silver; they could not communicate in silver." For the famed 1986 exhibition Luxury and Degradation, Jeff Koons set out to make history in the art world. Following on the critically-acclaimed footsteps of his 1985 Equilibrium exhibit the year before, Koons’ new process investigated yet another aspect of contemporary society with his characteristic wit and resonance. Showcased in both LosAngeles and NewYork, Luxury and Degradation displayed life-size replicas of liquor advertisements and hand-made fabrications of alcohol-derived accoutrements.The combination sought to dazzle and belittle the very structures underlying the commodity of alcohol and its consumptive, corruptive forces.The present lot, Jim Beam – Caboose, a noted highlight from the show, displays Koons’ knack for recapturing mass-appeal in an attempt to expose the artifice behind advertising slogans and campaigns and the desires they invoke. It highlights not only Koons’ grand artistic aims of that decade but also the successful commercialization efforts gaining ground from the strength of the 1980s stock market. Luxury and Degradation was ultimately one of the most important and ambitious exhibitions Koons produced. The artist counterposes that which causes pleasure, through its comfortable indulgence, with dereliction of a moral and behavioral code, debasing and corrupting ones rank or character.As the artist describes, his show undertook the following themes from contemporary society: “I paralleled the alcoholic, the desire for alcohol, and the dependence on alcohol as an underlying debasement and degradation…The show was really telling people not to pursue luxury and to avoid all the dangers of degradation.” (Jeff Koons taken from T. Kellein, ed., Pictures Jeff Koons 1980-2002, NewYork, 2002, p. 21) Never one to shy away from criticizing contemporary society, Koons’ Luxury and Degradation utilizes media and industry to achieve his artistic aims. As Robert Rosenblum describes, “His wish to communicate with as wide an audience as possible and his belief that the way to do it now is through the media, ‘through TV and advertising, through the film and entertainment industries’ may sound disarmingly crass, but its combination of dumb innocence and shrewd calculation is clearly, for an artist born in the 1950s and emerging in the climate of the 1980s, less affectation than just plain honesty and commonsense for someone pursuing a career in the arts, including those high-minded art critics who are ever eager to expand their own fame and power through the media but who sneer aristocratically at Koons for doing the same thing,” (R. Rosenblum, “Notes on Jeff Koons ” The Jeff Koons Handbook, London/NewYork, 1992, p. 12). Luxury and Degradation is focused on issues of class and the consumption of alcohol.Yet one of the most compelling works in the series, the Jim Beam – Caboose, is actually a relic of childhood, a child’s toy train, but cast in stainless steel and filled with bourbon. Koons reminds us that for Americans, the ability to drink alcohol is considered the signifier and reward for growing up with this alluring, shimmering stainless steel prize. The object is a physical incarnation of the longing of youth to taste what they are not allowed. The liquor-filled toy is an emblem of forbidden adult acti
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