On Sat, 22 Aug 2009, the Weekend FT was quoted as saying:
> <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fbe0ba50-8de1-11de-93df-00144feabdc0.html>
>
> Lunch with the FT: Jeff Koons
> By Peter Aspden
>
> ...
>
> [Koons has been] lauded for his cleverness in combining the monumental
> effect of high art with the cheap pleasures of the banal. He has,
> according to veteran critic Robert Hughes, "the slimy assurance ... of a
> blow-dried Baptist selling swamp acres in Florida." But even this
> denigrator-in-chief admits: "The result is that you can't imagine
> America's singularly depraved culture without him."
What Hughes was really referring to there was the depraved culture of the 1980s art market. Which is true, but that whole scene is kind of marginalized here now. The place where it's still vibrantly alive is the UK, where this interview was done.
I didn't know the part about him travelling to see his idol Salvidor Dali in NY when he was 20. Seems like a very appropriate passing of the circus barker sideshow torch.
Michael