Underestimate Jeff Koons at your own peril.
The artist’s soaring ambition shows no sign of abating, market doldrums be damned. In the past year alone, Koons has taken on the moon, where his sculptures just landed after a weeklong journey—and the sun (more on that later).
Here on Earth, some of the 69-year-old artist’s biggest champions are working hard to reverse the recent downward trajectory in his prices.
The stakes are high. Koons’s auction totals have plummeted since his gleaming steel Rabbit (1986) fetched $91 million in 2019, making him the most expensive living artist in the world, the crown he still holds. Last year was particularly bad: Sales fell to just $27.8 million, down 84 percent from the peak of $170.8 million in 2014, according to the Artnet Price Database. Almost 40 percent of the 292 Koons lots offered failed to find buyers. He ranked 72nd on a list of artists’ annual auction revenue, down from 55th in 2022—itself a demotion from 2019, when he was 15th, according to Artnet data.
Such ebb-and-flow is not new for Koons. At various points in his long career, he has been the world’s most famous artist and the comeback kid. Right now he appears to be both at the same time. And so this spring, several powerful secondary market players are mounting Koons exhibitions in New York, London, and Hong Kong to remind everyone of his greatness.
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They believe that his market will bounce back, realigning itself once again with his art historical significance.
“There’s no question about it,” said Dakis Joannou, who’s been collecting Koons for almost 40 years, becoming a close friend along the way.
Several significant works that the Greek collector originally acquired are now heading to Hong Kong for “Jeff Koons: 1979–1999” at Art Intelligence Global (AIG), the advisory firm co-founded by Amy Cappellazzo and Yuki Terase. The exhibition unites a dozen pieces from Koons’s early series, including the “Inflatables,” “Equilibrium,” and “Made in Heaven.” Most will be appearing in Asia for the first time, according to AIG. One work, Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988), has an asking price in excess of $50 million. The exhibition will open on March 23 alongside Art Basel Hong Kong.
Jeff Koons with his porcelain sculpture of Michael Jackson in a SoHo freight elevator, 1989 ©️ Thomas Hoepker/Magnum Photos
“Jeff Koons is one of the most well-known names in Asia, and yet he’s never really had a proper survey there, especially of the early works,” Terase said in an interview. “We are doing something very meaningful because a lot of people have only seen the works on social media and the internet, but never in person.”
In London, Skarstedt gallery will display five mural-size canvases in “Jeff Koons: Paintings, 2001–2013.” Opening March 1, the show will arrive in time for the marquee London auctions of Impressionist, modern, and contemporary art. It will include works from the “Easyfun-Ethereal” series, which started with seven paintings commissioned by the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin in 2000. (None of the Guggenheim’s paintings are in the show, the gallery confirmed. But two other pieces from the series are included, having recently come to auction, with Hot Dog, 2002, fetching $1.9 million in November and Pancakes, 2001, selling for $867,000 in 2021.)
Then, New York’s Mnuchin Gallery will revisit its watershed 2004 exhibition, “Jeff Koons: Highlights of 25 Years,” which included many of his greatest hits, including Michael Jackson and Bubbles. The show began a new chapter for the artist, following a painful decade marked by the end of his first marriage in a bitter divorce and his near-bankruptcy while creating the “Celebration” series.
“It was an awe-inspiring show,” said Michael McGinnis, a partner at Mnuchin, remembering its impact when he was the head of contemporary art at Phillips.
Stellar reviews followed and Koons’s auction market took off, crossing $20 million in auction sales for the first time that year. It would not sink below that level until the global pandemic hit in 2020, when annual sales plummeted to just $2.7 million.
Mnuchin’s show, set for late April, will present 25 artworks spanning the artist’s entire five-decade career. “It will be a wow, wow, wow kind of show,” McGinnis said, declining to elaborate on the specific works because loans have not been finalized.
Jeff Koons, Hot Dog, 2002. © Jeff Koons Courtesy of Skarstedt
Those in the know whispered that hedge-fund billionaire and Mets owner Steve Cohen may loan his yellow Balloon Dog (1994–2000), instead of the orange sibling that was in the original show, courtesy of its then owner, Peter Brant. (Yes, it does fit!) Sadly, the Rabbit, which was in the 2004 show, is unlikely to make an appearance. (Museums hold three of the four pieces in the edition; the only one in private hands was reportedly bought by Cohen in 2019 and subsequently resold to billionaire financier Ken Griffin, market insiders told me.)
Back in Hong Kong, AIG’s lineup will include works that have become icons after appearing in prestigious exhibitions, such as the artist’s 2014 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. (Large Vase of Flowers, 1991, a massive, intricately carved wood bouquet, graced the cover of the Whitney’s exhibition catalog.) Terase and Cappellazzo are preparing for crowds, given the value of the artworks and their consequent insurance requirements.
“There will be a line around the block to see the show,” Cappellazzo said.
Several pieces have been closely linked to Joannou’s massive art collection, and they return to the market after decades. Take One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. JK 241 Series), a seminal 1985 work comprising a basketball suspended in a tank. Joannou saw it at Koons’s first solo exhibition at the International With Monument Gallery in New York’s East Village. It made a memorable first impression, he said, “something I couldn’t get out of my mind.” He bought the work for $2,700.
“And that’s how eventually I got to meet Jeff and the whole thing started from there,” Joannou told me.
Joannou went on to acquire examples from almost every subsequent series Koons made (until the two most recent ones). He waited six years to get the red Balloon Dog, the first puppy from the “Celebration” series (and only after paying for its production). Twenty years would go by before he received a giant pile of Play-Doh (1994–2014).
Jeff Koons & Dakis Joannou, 2004, by Todd Eberle © Todd Eberle
Courtesy: DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art
The artist and his patron became close over the years. Joannou is the godfather of Koons’s son Ludwig. The artist created the famously unorthodox (camouflage-inspired) look of his collector’s yacht, Guilty, and designed a heart-shaped wedding cake for his daughter’s wedding. (That concoction featured 2½-foot-tall figures of a swan and a rabbit that would later become 12- and 14-foot-tall sculptures.) The two men’s families vacationed together on Greek islands. In 2010, Joannou invited Koons to curate a controversial show of his collection at the New Museum.
But the most poignant manifestation of their friendship appeared two years ago on the island of Hydra in Greece, where each summer Joannou’s Deste Foundation taps contemporary artists to transform a small, cliff-side former slaughterhouse into an art display.
Notoriously controlling and perfectionist, Koons held the details of the project in absolute secrecy, making everyone involved sign non-disclosure agreements, according to Joannou, who first saw it just half an hour before the public opening.
“It was like giving me a present of the first impression,” he said.
What he saw left him speechless. Koons transformed the dark, rugged bunker space into a temple to Apollo, complete with replicas of ancient frescoes discovered in a house near Pompeii (now displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), a polychrome animatronic sculpture of the Greek sun god accompanied by a snake flicking its tongue, and a 30-foot-wide, blazing-gold wind spinner shaped like the sun, mounted on the roof to greet boats entering the port.
Jeff Koons, Apollo Windspinner, 2020–2022. Installation view of the exhibition “Jeff Koons: Apollo,” DESTE Foundation, Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra © Jeff Koons, Photo: Eftychia Vlachou.
“I think of it as the island’s Statue of Liberty,” said Linda Yablonsky, the author of a forthcoming biography of Koons. “For those of us who know Dakis and know Jeff, that was a very touching and meaningful gesture.”
Meanwhile, just as this column was going to print, Koons’s artworks—small replicas of the moon—landed on the lunar surface, the first authorized artworks to reach that rocky terrain. Koons’s ability to pull off such a feat is what gives his fans confidence in their investments, despite market turbulence.
“He’s moving every time in the area that you could not have even imagined,” Joannou said when we spoke. “You can never catch up with him. Now he’s off to the moon!”
[embedded content]Koons’s market is also ready for blastoff, his boosters argue.
“This is the right time to buy Jeff Koons,” said Alberto Mugrabi, a collector and trader whose family bought the orange Balloon Dog for $58.4 million in 2013. “Jeff Koons has only one way to go, and that’s up.”
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CHATTANOOGA, TN –
Since the invention of the camera over 200 years ago, photography has gone thru significant upgrades. It’s gone from Dark Rooms, to one-hour photos to digital. Cameras have gone from big and bulky to sleek and some even pocket sized.
Artificial Intelligence has been unleashed on the world and some believe that, if left unchecked, we could end up in a late 90’s science fiction movie where the machines are taking over the world.
Professional photographer Nino Batista doesn’t quite think we’re headed for extinction, but he did take time to share his opinions.
“I’m not being naïve but I will say this. There’s something to be said for the lack, when I say lack of the human element in AI generative developed things where it’s music or video or visuals or photography. When I say there’s a lack of a human element what’s lacking is the authenticity. There’s nothing more in depth there right, it’s missing something. Right? It’s missing that extra,” Batista said. “Audio voiceovers that are incidental like when we’re seeing people fake a celebrity that’s a legal matter and that probably won’t last very long because the celebrity will jump in. But when it comes to incidental voice like video games? You have a bunch of dialogue? Can you imagine not having to hire a voice actor anymore? You can just have the video game say whatever the heck it wants to say in the middle of the game and it’s gonna sound completely fluid. Not completely new either because we have siri and alexa and things that talk back to us.”
Nino and I had a great conversation about the uses of AI that have been around much longer than most people realize. AI has been used in some of our favorite songs over the last 40 years and even in the 80s people thought musicians would be replaced with machines, but in 2024 they’re still selling out concerts worldwide.
“That extra element is what’s missing in AI. It will replace some things, but actual art, is what, the actual art in my opinion that matters will never be replaced per se because there’s no intent and intent is human,” claims Batista. “Computers can make beautiful things that are striking and useful but intent and purpose will never be replaced by that.”
For a different perspective we also talked to a world traveled digital artist hailing from Canada named Renee Robyn. She is known around the world for her digital art with a career that spans more than 20 years.
“I mean my perspective on it is that I’m firmly in the middle. I have one foot that’s like absolutely terrified of what’s coming to us and the other foot is really, really excited about what’s coming. The biggest thing that I think we have to be mindful of because this is Pandoras box has been opened and there is no way we can ever put this back,” says Robyn. “So the biggest way to combat that is education to understand and to teach people how do we spot AI. How do we train other AI models to spot when AI is being used. Do you remember early CGI and when people couldn’t figure out what was real and what wasn’t? But now of course we look back on it because we’re all educated and we’ve all seen things grow, CGI especially the early stuff is very obvious. I think the same thing, a similar thing is going to happen with AI over time. We’re going to see people who are writers who are looking at that and going yeah that was probably written by a robot and this is written by a human being.”
According to Renee “I try to always look at the technology as if I was a 16-year-old artist again and looking at this and using it as like what could I do with this? What does this tool allow me to do? But on the flip side it also cheapens the work because there’s a lot less effort that goes in to it. But I’m so fascinated about how the applications are going to go forward in animation. I’ve built my career I have a huge library of photo stock that I have shot myself and I’ve traveled all over the world to shoot it but now I can just go on to these computers and just type things in. But of course, none of these things that we render out of these AI models are copyrightable whereas the images that I create that I have that I’ve photographed all the pieces for are highly copyrightable material.”
Both of my friends had positives and negatives to say. Nino even referenced that Photography was once accused of killing artists because no one would want paintings if they could have photographs but Andy Warhol sold paintings in the 60s and 70s over 100 years after photography was invented. While new technology has always frightened some and excited a few of us, Renee had one addition that I hadn’t considered.
“This is the type of technology that has the impact to change the world in the way the invention of the smart phone did. So having these devices where we basically carry around our collective knowledge of the entire world, the access to it in our pocket is bananas,” says Robin. “We didn’t know with the creation of the smart phone that companies like uber were going to exist. Right? You know companies like these millions of apps that you can get. None of these would have existed without the smartphone. So, I think that with this technology we just have this shiny new device and everyone thinks whoa ‘this is so cool’ but the actual application and how this is really going to change the world is probably not for another 2-5 years and maybe faster than that.”
While AI is not necessarily new, it is here and more prevalent. Neither of our experts here seemed to think that we’ll end up in a science fiction movie, as long as we don’t give the machines a means to produce their own energy and resources. I think we can all agree that with all new things and new technology, education is the most important step in the journey.
Just like clockwork, Apple is expected to stick to its annual iPhone release cadence and ship updated models this fall. Likely to be unveiled in September, the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max will all replace the models that are on sale today. And as ever, we can expect a few improvements along the way.
While it’s still relatively early days for the new models, and rumors are only that, we do have some ideas of what those iPhones will have to offer when the covers are taken off later this year. New chips, potentially bigger displays, and revamped buttons could all be part of the fun, but for some people, it’s all about those cameras. The best iPhone to those people just happens to be the one with the best cameras, and 2024 could be particularly notable on that front.
Last year, it was the iPhone 15 Pro Max that took the crown thanks to an improved 4x optical zoom capability brought about by a new tetrapism lens, but things are set for a shake-up this time out, assuming the rumors are accurate. We’re going to dive into those rumors and outline what we expect the camera situation to be for the upcoming iPhones right here, but it’s important to remember one thing right out of the gate — rumors are only rumors until Apple announces the new iPhones this fall and until then, it’s impossible to be sure what the company has up its sleeve.
With that said, let’s dive in.
Current rumors have the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus sporting the same cameras as the outgoing iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which isn’t a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination.
The iPhone 15 models sported a new 48-megapixel main sensor, a notable upgrade over the previous sensor used in the iPhone 14 series of devices. The ultrawide camera is expected to retain its 12-megapixel sensor from last year’s model, while the selfie camera is also likely to continue to be a 12-megapixel part.
However, while the sensors might not be changing these two models could yet benefit from a whole new videography feature. If the rumors are true, a new, vertical camera layout will be used rather than the diagonal one of recent iPhones. The reason? The Apple Vision Pro.
The Apple Vision Pro is currently the hottest ticket in town, and one of its standout features is spatial video, a 3D video recording and viewing experience. While the Apple Vision Pro is the only Apple device capable of viewing spatial videos, it isn’t the only one that can capture them. The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can also record spatial videos, while the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus cannot, thanks to their diagonal camera array.
By moving the cameras to a vertical orientation, Apple could allow all new iPhone 16 models to record spatial videos via a stereoscopic lens configuration. It’s a move that makes plenty of sense, and Apple will no doubt want to give as many people as possible a chance to record videos for playback on their new $3,499 spatial computing device.
While the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus might be getting camera upgrades, those who want the best of the best will still want to go Pro. However, they might not need to choose the iPhone 16 Pro Max this time out.
That’s because persistent rumors have the iPhone 16 Pro gaining the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 5x tetraprism camera which could give it zoom parity with its larger cousin. Such a change would be a big move for Apple and herald the end of the current crop of 3x zoom models.
Alongside the tetraprism switch, there is also talk of a new 48-megapixel ultrawide camera, a move that could vastly improve the quality of shots it can take. This ultrawide boost is also tipped to come to the iPhone 16 Pro Max as you’d expect.
There are also reports of a change in lens construction technologies for the new high-end iPhones as well, potentially allowing for so-called super zoom capabilities. While that doesn’t mean a whole lot on its own, the label is normally given to cameras that have a focal length of more than 300mm. Such a figure would be much higher than that of the current iPhone 15 Pro Max’s zoom lens which sits at 120mm.
Beyond these changes, there is little already known about these new models, but it’s vital to remember that we are a long way off any of these new iPhones being announced and there is plenty of time for Apple’s plans to change between now and their release.
If the rumors turn out to be accurate all four new iPhones released in 2024 will be capable of capturing spatial videos which is a move that could see the number of people capturing 3D home movies balloon.
Such a move would see Apple leverage the iPhone to help it build added value into its new AR/VR headset in a way that few other companies can achieve and it’s a decision that makes tons of sense. It’s also a decision that leaves room for some unknowns, too.
Apple’s WWDC 2024 event is likely to take place in June with iOS 18 and visionOS 2.0 likely to be two of the announcements. If Apple does have some new Apple Vision Pro features on the way the new iPhones could be key to those plans. We might not learn about them until the fall, but anything Apple announces at WWDC could give us a glimpse of what’s to come in September. It’s tea leaf-reading at its finest, but it can often work, too.
This article is part of iPhone Photography Week 2024. Expect new posts to appear daily, focused on making your photos shot with iPhone better than ever before.
Share your photos with iMore on X (Twitter) using #iMorePhotographyWeek
Young Philly photographer puts passion for photography, experiences at Philly school into book – NBC10 Philadelphia
DETROIT – Did you know that one of the six people in one of the most famous photographs of all time was a Detroiter? It’s true.
On this day in 1945, six United States Marines raised the U.S. Flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the second flag being placed might be one of the most iconic photos ever taken.
This originally was published in ClickOnDetroit’s Morning Report Newsletter. You can get Metro Detroit’s news, headlines, deep dives and more in your inbox every morning.
Three of the men would be killed as the battle continued. The surviving three returned home as heroes. Kind of. Rosenthal didn’t know the names of the Marines and most of their faces are obscured in the photo, so it was difficult to figure out who these men were. Only one survivor was correctly identified at the time, Pfc. Ira Hayes.
One of the survivors, Harold Schultz, was misidentified in the photo as John Bradley until 2016. Schultz died in 1995, more than two decades before he was officially recognized as being a part of the iconic photograph. Most of his body was blocked from the camera by Franklin Sousley.
Schultz was born Jan. 28, 1925 in Detroit. If there was a competition for the most Detroit Detroiter, Schultz would easily make top 10. He grew up on the city’s southwest side, near the Rouge Plant, where his father worked. His mother was a machine operator at a different plant.
Related: How Warren helped defeat the Axis powers during World War II
Schultz graduated from Southwestern High School and enlisted at Fort Wayne in 1943. On this day. 79 years ago, he took part in the raising of both flags on Iwo Jima.
Bradley, for what its worth, was also a part of the team that raised the first flag on Iwo Jima. It’s not like he was a scam artist.
The Battle of Iwo Jima would continue for another month, ending on March 26. Schultz was wounded on March 13 and was honorably discharged. He spent the rest of his life working quietly for the Post Office.
Schultz chose to never speak publicly about being one of the flag-raisers, but his daughter claimed he told her once and never mentioned it again. He died of a heart attack on May 16, 1995.
Schultz received a Purple Heart, a Combat Action Ribbon, a Navy Presidential Unit Citation, a American Campaign Medal, a World War II Victory Medal and a Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star.
Much of what we know about Schultz came from Bill Ivory, a Vietnam Veteran from Detroit, who did significant research into him and his family after learning about the misidentification being corrected. You can read his story here.
When he was just 8 years old, photographer Emin Ozmen was waiting for a bus to his hometown of Sivas, Turkey. He was holding his parents’ hands and noticed they were forlorn. He later found out the reason: A group of radical Islamists had carried out a deadly attack on a hotel in his hometown. This tragic event was the first of many he would experience throughout life.
Ozmen recounts this formative event in an essay at the end of his newly published book, “Olay” (Mack, 2024). He goes on to say:
“This traumatic event was the first ‘olay’ — ‘incident’ or ‘event’ — I experienced. The first I can remember. … On that day, my innocence vanished. It was as if I had to try to understand everything, to document all of it, to feel whatever it was to compensate for the helplessness and disbelief I felt that day.”
Fast-forward a few years and he began a life as a photojournalist, wrapped up in many more “olays.” At first, he worked for a newspaper in Turkey but then became disillusioned, “after witnessing the manipulation of information within the newspaper I was working for.”
Ozmen resigned from his position as a staffer and embarked on a journey of independence, working as a freelancer.
In the following years, Turkey would see an uncanny spate of cataclysmic events, from military operations to student protests, disrupted elections, earthquakes, forest fires, drought and finally an economic crisis.
Ozmen was right there in the thick of all of it, documenting it with real flair, sensitivity, urgency and empathy. This was his country in turmoil, after all, and, as a child, he had pledged to try to make sense of life in it.
“Olay” is filled with eloquently executed black-and-white photographs, interspersed with a few color ones. There is poetry and surrealism in them. They fit with the idea of a country experiencing waves of chaos and uncertainty.
We are thrust, inexorably, into the chaos Ozmen witnessed firsthand. He pushes us into the middle of what he is seeing. The book is a visceral documentation of the push and pull of chaotic event after chaotic event. It is, indeed, a monumental testimony to not just the rough and tumble in Turkey but, by extension, the very world we live in.
Maybe it has always been a tumbling, out-of-control world, but over the past few years, it has felt as though the “olays,” as Ozmen refers to them, keep coming at a faster and faster clip.
Here’s the thing: Ozmen isn’t fatalistic about any of this. As he says at the end of his essay in the book:
“Never a week without a drama, never a month without a major event. Here, nothing is simple, everything intermingles and clashes, the beautiful as well as the ugly, sadness as well as joy. Our hearts are heavy, tired, but the resistance prevents us from falling into total despair. We have not forgotten that not only torment but grace wanders around us.”
You can find out more about the book, and how to buy it, here.
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