If I remember correctly, this guy did several sculptures or paintings of himself and his wife having sex, with titles like "Me having sex with [Wife’s name] (something like Ciacletta ??) ". Ring any bells?
Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons. His wife was Ilona Staller. And since I got beat by mhendo, she also went by Cicciolina, and was elected to the Italian parliament.
Thats him. Wow. 4 min and SDMB came through. I was right that his wife had Italian connection, but pretty far off on the name.
I had no idea Jeff Koons did X-rated sculptures. I had only heard of him from his rabbit sculpture (which became a balloon in the Macy’s parade) and his various legal spats (such as being sued over an unauthorized use of the “Odie” character). I had no idea he was such a versatile artist.
I first recall him being famous for his floating basketballs in an aquarium sculpture. And then a canister vacuum as sculpture. Now that he’s famous, he conceptualizes his pieces and has expert craftsmen execute them. I’m pretty sure this was true by the time he created the ceramic sculptures of him screwing Cicciolina. I gotta admit, I find some of his stuff pretty amusing and creative, even though I questioned his artistic credentials earlier on in his career. That huge topiary/flower arrangement puppy was pretty awesome. The steel balloon dog is in Eli Broad’s brand spanking new Broad Contemporary Art Museum in L.A.
Isn’t this just the same as saying he thinks of something and then gets an artist to make it?
And I know “conceptualize” is a real word in that it appears in dictionaries, but I have my doubts as whether it should be. I’m unsure that it means anything other than ‘think about’.
Depends on whether the art is in the concept or the manufacture. I think he’d probably prefer to describe the person making it as a ‘craftsman’.
I think Andy Warhol did a fair bit of this too.
The Old Masters did that all the time - they’d “conceptualize” something, do some drawings and then have the apprentices size the canvas, grind the pigments and apply them. That’s why you see painings attributed to “School of Rubens.”
When this jobbing-out came back in the 80’s, my objection was to the fact that guys like Koons and Mark Kostabi payed the techs as little as possible.
Do you think Gutzon Borglum carved all of Mount Rushmore with his own little chisel?
Dale Chihuly ain’t blowin’ all that glass on his own, either.
Sure, he jobs out some stuff, but who do you think Koons had do the Nasty with Cicciolina when creating those pieces? His craftspeople? Priorities, people!
Art isn’t fair, I tell you!
There’s gotta be a way to wrap an observation related to THAT into this, too 
Not a big deal in Chihuly’s case, since he’s a craftsman, not an artist (that is to say: his pretty pieces of glass have nothing to say about the human condition other than that we like pretty pieces of glass)
Ouch.
I don’t have the energy for this particular fight today.
However, apropos of nothing, I’ve heard from museum guards (who get to see everything, they’re great people to chat up) that Chihuly’s an ass.
No wonder his art doesn’t have any depth. With only one eye, he doesn’t have any depth perception.
I just have to say that anyone who gets others to execute “his work” is not the actual artist. If Jeff Koons was like “make a photorealistic sculpture of me and my wife fucking” and someone else made the sculpture, I’d say that someone else is the actual artist, not Koons. It’s just like how capitalism works - someone at the top who couldn’t do the actual work himself, but who has the connections to market it etc., gets people who can do the work to do it, then takes most of the money and all of the credit. And don’t tell me those folks doing the work are free to choose otherwise - the grand majority of us have to devote our productivity and talent to further the schemes of those who won’t share anything but a pittance with us. I resent those who would use this type of system in art.
Just popped in to say that David Letterman’s interview with Jeff Koons was a classic. Letterman obviously was not very familiar with him and was being very friendly with him. Until he realized what an ass Koons was. Then he found out he didn’t actually do any of his art. Classic.
So Spielberg isn’t an artist then?
While Spielberg’s work requires the assistance of a huge number of other artisans, he is capable of writing, shooting and editing an entire film by himself.
But I get the impression that Jeff Koons is incapable of drawing a still life of a bowl of fruit with a pencil at gunpoint.
He’s an artist only if you consider “bullshit” a medium.
As a bullshit artiste, I have to say I do consider bullshit a medium.