Jeremy Scott and Other Fashion Designers Ask Jeff Koons About His Favorite Museum, Future Plans, and More

Four designers ask Jeff Koons random questions.

Image via i-D

As one of the most influential artists of the 21st century, Jeff Koons has served as a consistent source of inspiration for many contemporary fashion collections. From his unique reinterpretation of the readymade to his quirky approach to pop culture, the 59-year-old American visionary has gained an impressive following among current fashion designers.

Following the conclusion of his Retrospective Exhibit at the Whitney Museum yesterday, i-D magazine allowed four of these designers/Koons fans to ask the artist several questions of their choice. Jeremy Scott, Gareth Pugh, Walter Van Beirendonck, and Bernhard Willhelm quizzed him on everything from his favorite museum and obsession with children’s objects, to his choice of funeral song and his fascination with Paris Hilton.

Check out some highlights from the Q&A below. You can read the entire post at i-D.

Gareth Pugh: If you could choose to do one thing before it’s too late, what is it and why?

Jeff Koons: "It’s always to make the gesture that you really want to make. What people avoid most in life... is what they want to do the most. They place the most anxiety on that, because they hold it as a cherished thing. So it’s really to make the gesture that I long to make."

 


GP: Where’s your favourite museum?

JK: "It’s in New York... I love the Metropolitan."

Walter Van Beirendonck: Children and toys are an important source of inspiration for your work. Why?

Jeff Koons: "Because they reference the every day, there’s no good and bad, there’s acceptance of everything, and everything’s in play. When you’re younger you enjoy things just for what they are. You enjoy the colour blue... red... orange. But then over time education comes in, then you care how high quality things are or the way things should be looked at. Children are given much more freedom than that. So it’s to maintain that innocence, visually."

Jeremy Scott: Duchamp or Warhol, who would win in a wrestling match?

Jeff Koons: "Duchamp. We come from Duchamp and have all been involved with the development of what objective art can be."

 


JS: Do you fantasize about Paris Hilton? What is your view on celebrity culture?

JK: "I don’t really fantasise about Paris at all. I find celebrity culture amazing. It shows our weaknesses. If something is repeated or displayed automatically it takes on a sense of significance, whether it has any significance in our life or not. But just through that repetition it takes on significance."

Bernhard Willhelm: Any regrets?

Jeff Koons: "My only regret would be that when you’re younger you don’t realise what you have. I always thought I was aware of the opportunities around me. It’s wonderful to take advantage of the opportunity of time. I didn’t have time work in my favour. When I say work in my favour, I mean I didn’t buy townhouses or do things like that when time was on my side as far as economics go. I learned later in life how important education was. As soon as I started to feel a sense of enlightenment I’ve always tried to participate in it."

 


BW: What are you going to do next?

JK: "New work. It’s a process that I love. I never try to sit down and address it in an analytical manner. I’ve been creating these sculptures that go alongside this series of paintings. I’ve designed a lot of them, but I’ll be taking that to completion and adding to the vocabulary."

[via i-D]

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