Jeff Koons: A Retrospective
June 27–Oct 19, 2014
Hulk Elvis
12
With Hulk Elvis, Koons extended and complicated his renewed interest in the readymade, employing cutting-edge technologies to further blur the distinction between real things and their copies. To create the sculptures in this series, Koons has pioneered methods for capturing source data and fabricating objects that rival the most advanced capabilities of science and manufacturing. This exactitude contributes to the “strong, heroic” quality Koons sought in Hulk Elvis (which takes its name from the cartoon antihero and the virile pop star). The layered compositions of Koons’s canvases—with a grinning monkey, an erotic scene from a Japanese print, and a linear depiction of a horse-drawn carriage confronting a train—suggest sexual union, the clash of opposing worlds, permanence and evanescence, and a sense of power and confidence made all the more compelling by the threat of obsolescence and deflation.
Liberty Bell, 2006–14
Jeff Koons, Liberty Bell, 2006–14. Bronze, wood, wrought iron, and cast iron; 102 x 72 1⁄4 x 56 1⁄4 in. (259 x 183.4 x 143 cm). Private collection. © Jeff Koons
Growing up in south central Pennsylvania, Koons first encountered works of art and cultural artifacts in the museums and public spaces of Philadelphia. One such object was the Liberty Bell. Koons explains that his interest in the bell stems from its history not only as an icon of freedom and independence but also as an object that has been shaped by many hands: “[The] Liberty Bell has been melted down at least twice and recast, and the yoke has been changed. . . . There is a sense of a collective readymade I am embracing now.” Koons undertook extensive research into the bell’s materials and measurements in order to create an exact replica of how it appeared when installed in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall in the 1950s and 1960s, when the artist saw it as a child. This sculpture represents one of the first times that he has created an “altered readymade” in the very same materials as the original.