Jeff Koons: A Retrospective

In 1980 Koons unveiled the earliest works from his breakout series The New in his first exhibition, held in the New Museum’s storefront window on Fourteenth Street. The display featured three illuminated wall reliefs affixed with vacuum cleaners as well as a lighted sign announcing the title of the series and the show. With these works and the freestanding encased examples that followed, Koons sought to capture the very essence of newness. Yet, almost paradoxically, the appliances in their antiseptic chambers have inevitably grown dated, suggesting that the eternal and inexorable quest for the “new and improved” in both art and commerce is inherently shadowed by the threat of obsolescence. The New also includes works that occupy the space of painting, in this case billboards that trumpet new products and toy with the distinction between art and advertising.