Oh, the banality

Saw the Jeff Koons retrospective at the CAM in Chicago.

What's nice about Jeff Koons is when one goes to a museum and is presented with a rolled up carpet "by" some late 60s thinker, next to various ab-ex slashings, etc, a Koons piece will likely stand up and shout "Howdy!," breaking the doldrums.

Whether or not it's really all about death or what have you is sort of beyond the point. The sheer dumbness/intelligence of the execution, the effort involved in painstakingly recreating, say, an inflatable pool toy in aluminum says more about the pointlessness of the effort exerted than anything else! Love it!

So, when you have an entire room FULL of his "classics" as well as rather pointless hodgepodge newish paintings that rip off everyone from Warhol to Rauschenberg it's kind of like eating too much candy and having that listless sugary feeling. YET that very emptiness is what likely puts a smile on the artist's face! I had seen pictures of/known of his many major works for years and being in a room stuffed with them elicited no feeling whatsoever! Awesome!

So, my banality cravings are sated for the time being. And now Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis is a mere two years away!