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Lot Essay
The flat, mirrored surface of Jeff Koons’s Sheep (Yellow) presents the viewer with a playful reflection of reality. Nearly abstract in form, the contours of the sheep’s silhouette are rendered in sweeping, gentle arcs reminiscent of the fluffy curves of a child’s stuffed animal. The resulting image is a beguiling homage to the nostalgia and innocence of childhood. Sheep (Yellow) is part of Koons’s Easyfun series, a surreal and joyful exploration of the intersection of high and low art.
In complete opposition to the denouncement of objects from popular culture by certain members of the intellectual community, Koons’s reference to recognizable pop culture referents reinforces their importance as part of our collective imagination as a culture–elevating them to the status of fine art. As the artist has suggested, “art can be a horrible discriminator. It can be used either to be uplifting and to give self-empowerment, or to debase people and disempower them. And on the tightrope in between, there is one’s cultural history...everybody’s cultural history is perfect, it can’t be anything other than what it is–it is absolute perfection” (J. Koons, quoted in Jeff Koons, Cologne, 2009, p. 260). In this sense, we can consider the reflective effect of the mirror as a means of literally absorbing the viewer into the work of art, uplifting them to the status of immaculate perfection that the work itself embodies. It is impossible to regard Sheep (Yellow) without seeing one’s own image in its surface; in this way, the viewer becomes a crucial, formal element of the artwork.
The Easyfun mirrors can also be read as a cautionary invitation to contemplate the superficiality of the material world. In the same sense that the work uplifts and transfigures the viewer in a kind of banal apotheosis, it implicitly calls into question society’s given system of values, especially the role of the individual in that society. Sheep (Yellow) is a brilliant example of Koons's recurring theme of self affirmation, exemplifying his assertion that the art happens inside the viewer.
In complete opposition to the denouncement of objects from popular culture by certain members of the intellectual community, Koons’s reference to recognizable pop culture referents reinforces their importance as part of our collective imagination as a culture–elevating them to the status of fine art. As the artist has suggested, “art can be a horrible discriminator. It can be used either to be uplifting and to give self-empowerment, or to debase people and disempower them. And on the tightrope in between, there is one’s cultural history...everybody’s cultural history is perfect, it can’t be anything other than what it is–it is absolute perfection” (J. Koons, quoted in Jeff Koons, Cologne, 2009, p. 260). In this sense, we can consider the reflective effect of the mirror as a means of literally absorbing the viewer into the work of art, uplifting them to the status of immaculate perfection that the work itself embodies. It is impossible to regard Sheep (Yellow) without seeing one’s own image in its surface; in this way, the viewer becomes a crucial, formal element of the artwork.
The Easyfun mirrors can also be read as a cautionary invitation to contemplate the superficiality of the material world. In the same sense that the work uplifts and transfigures the viewer in a kind of banal apotheosis, it implicitly calls into question society’s given system of values, especially the role of the individual in that society. Sheep (Yellow) is a brilliant example of Koons's recurring theme of self affirmation, exemplifying his assertion that the art happens inside the viewer.