Jeff Koons Contemporary Consumerism

For further information on record breaking sales at Christie's art auctions, see Kathryn Tully, "The Most Expensive Art Ever Sold At Auction: Christie's Record-Breaking Sale," Forbes. Nov. 13, 2013.
For more on Jeff Koons' iconic art work featured in the Equilibrium series, see Christie's featured video and article at www.christies.com/features/jeff-koons-one-ball-total-equilibrium-tank-7307-3.aspx.
For a comprehensive look into the life and work of Jeff Koons, see Ingrid Sischy, "Jeff Koons Is Back!" Vanity Fair. July 2014.
For an assistant's perspective on working for Jeff Koons, see John Powers, "I Was Jeff Koons's Studio Serf," The New York Times Magazine. Aug. 17, 2012.
For a further look into the life and work of Jeff Koons, see Carl Swanson, "Jeff Koons Is the Most Successful American Artist Since Warhol. So What's the Art World Got Against Him?" Vulture. May 5, 2013.
For more details on Jeff Koons and images of his work, see www.artsy.net/artist/jeff-koons
The Fountain Artwork image and description available at www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain.
For more on a look at the Whitney Museum Jeff Koons Retrospective, see Jed Perl, "The Cult of Jeff Koons," The New York Review. Sept. 25, 2014 issue.
From the United Kingdom Tate Institution resource guide for teachers, educators and youth workers.
Parker, "Artist, Jeff Koons" (see footnote 3).
New Shelton Wet/Dry Doubledecker Artwork image and description available at www.moma.org/collection/works/81090.
For more on Koons' work and dialogue, see Adam Parker, "Artist Jeff Koons, world-famous and controversial, comes to Charleston," The Post and Courier. Nov. 12, 2016.
For a South Carolina local newspaper article on Jeff Koons, see Adam Parker, "Artist Jeff Koons, world-famous and controversial, comes to Charleston," The Post and Courier. Nov. 12, 2016.
Ingrid Sischy, "Jeff Koons Is Back!" (see footnote 3).
For more catalogue notes on Jeff Koons from Sotheby's, see "Contemporary Art Evening Auction," Sotheby's. May 14, 2013.
"consumerism." Merriam-Webster.com.
For more on the history and details of consumerism, see Richard Heinberg, "The Brief, Tragic Reign of Consumerism—and the birth of a happy alternative," Post Carbon Institute. April 14, 2015.
For more on the connection between consumerism and art, see Anika D., "Is Consumerism Depicted in Art a Relevant Critique of Contemporary Society and Culture?" Widewalls.
For more on consumerism as a way of life, see Steven Miles, "Consumerism as a Way of Life." SAGE Publications, 1998.
For more on consumerism in the context of America, see Mark Whitehouse, "Number of the Week: Americans Buy More Stuff They Don't Need." The Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2011.
For more on class and consumerism, see Thorstein Veblen, "The Theory of the Leisure Class." Columbia Law, 1899.
Heinberg, "The Brief, Tragic Reign" (see footnote 10).
For more on the history of Bed Bath & Beyond, see "Bed Beth & Beyond Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 2016.
"Bed Beth & Beyond Inc." (see footnote 14).
For more on the conceptualization of Jeff Koons work, see "Jeff Koons At Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago" Art Daily.
"Jeff Koons at Museum" (see footnote 16).
"Contemporary Art Evening Auction" (see footnote 15).
For more on the value of Jeff Koons' art, see Felix Salmon, "Jeff Koons: A Master Innovator Turning Money Into Art." The Guardian, March 7, 2014.
For more on why expensive art is important, see Kathryn Tully, "Jeff Koons's Whitney Retrospective: Expensive Art Is Important Art." Forbes, June 25, 2014.
For more on the expenses of art in current and future times, see William Lee Adams, "Q. Can art really get any more expensive? A. 'We will see a billion dollar work.' CNN, May 19, 2014.
For an image and further description from the New Museum archives, visit the New Museum Digital Archives at archive.newmusuem.org
New Shelton Wet/Dry Doubledecker Artwork image and description available at www.moma.org/collection/works/81090.


SUNY Purchase College



Contemporary Consumerism
The New by Jeff Koons





Jesse Krim
Research Paper
Susan Orr
May 4, 2017

ABSTRACT
This research aims to answer the question of how the artwork of Jeff Koons, specifically in his series, The New, epitomizes the consumeristic culture of today's society. The paper asserts that by using ordinary objects in provocative ways, Jeff Koons successfully creates suggestive sculptures reminiscent of the consumerism that has been prevalent since early 20th century America. Through the paradoxical scenario of elevating and celebrating ordinary goods to then sell them as "works of art," a consumeristic microcosm is formed. Further, it provides quotes giving insight from Jeff Koons himself. Using mostly secondary sources, the research presented is a comprehensive look at The New and its theme of consumerism in America. Sources include magazine and newspaper articles, as well as published works, that focus on Jeff Koons as an artist, as well as image archives from various museums and auction houses. Written in subsections, this paper focuses on the background information, controversy, the readymade form of art, exhibited artworks, consumerism, real world parallels, the microcosm created by The New, and conclusive statements associated with The New series. After taking a general look at the artist and his work, a deeper look is taken into the specific series as well as how it fits in to the context of modern consumerism. Comparison to modern day retail stores is given in relation to Bed Bath & Beyond. Using historical fact and critical analysis, Koons' work is evaluated from a consumeristic point of view.

Modern phenomena and human nature are called into question in The New, Jeff Koons' evocative series of sculptures in the 'readymade' form, first exhibited in 1980. This series takes mass-production and capitalism into the realm of high art in order to comment on the society of modern times. Koons is a contemporary artist whose controversial work rose to prominence in the 1980s. The New brings together Koons' influences, such as Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dali, in order to communicate the emotions established by the consumeristic contemporary culture. Easily compared to the walls of an everyday merchandise store, the pieces displayed in The New offer an artistic expression of the present-day condition that is the capitalistic mindset. With the varying responses the series elicits, Koons does not shy away from providing his own thoughts on his work and the attention it garners. This series is a body of work that manifests consumer culture and its role in American society. Using ordinary objects in provocative ways, Jeff Koons successfully creates suggestive sculptures reminiscent of the consumerism that has been prevalent since early 20th century America. Through the paradoxical scenario of elevating and celebrating ordinary goods to then sell them as "works of art," a consumeristic microcosm is formed.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Described as the Andy Warhol of his time, Jeff Koons is a contemporary artist unafraid of breaking boundaries with controversial work. His art is often laden with what much of the art world sees as taboo. Setting a record for the most expensive art work by a living artist, Koons' work often rakes in millions of dollars in a single auction. When he began as an art student in Baltimore, Koons was immediately influenced by artists such as Salvador Dali and Jim Nutt. Working at the Museum of Modern Art membership desk, Koons was immersed in the history of modernism, where he found revelation in artist Marcel Duchamp's theories and the medium of the readymade. Koons' series, Equilibrium, served to propel him into the art scene of the '80s. The works in Equilibrium feature basketballs that seem to defy gravity. Suspended in tanks, the inflatable objects hover in the center of tanks filled with water. Equilibrium feature, One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank, is considered one of the most influential contemporary art pieces of our time; Curator Jeffrey Deitch described the tank as 'instantly iconic.' After first seeing the series at an artist-run gallery in lower Manhattan, Greek collector Dakis Joannou, said, "He had depth. He had vision. He had an enormous world of his own that he had not even started exploring yet." It was from there that Koons progressed and began making series and artworks using all kinds of media. To create his large-scale pieces, Koons uses a color-by-numbers system he developed, as a form of art fabrication, so that each of his many assistants could create his pieces. Koons has many assistants who bring his visions to life, "I'm basically the idea person, I'm not physically involved in the production. I don't have the necessary abilities, so I go to the top people." The goal is to have every artwork appear to have been made by one singular hand. An example of the process is the task of color application. When working on his designs, one part of his team identifies areas that require a color, with no room for interpretation. Each shade is mapped out and given a number and no color is applied before being approved by Koons himself.
Working in series for most of his career, Koons did not always have the money he has today. The scale and materials needed for the majority of his work put Koons out by millions, even threatening bankruptcy at times. Producing both sculpture and paintings, the repertoire of the 62-year-old artist takes cues from pop culture to antiquity. From his most controversial work, Made In Heaven, sculptures and prints depicting various sexual scenes, to one of his most recent, Bouquet of Tulips, a tribute to the victims of the recent Paris terror attack, innovation and influence is evident in all that Koons creates.
CONTROVERSY
Like any prominent artist, Koons has endured his fair share of criticism and controversy. The most infamous controversy over the artist's work was born from his Made in Heaven exhibition. This series featured artwork depicting sexual scenes and acts that to the public and media was a must-see. The art establishment, on the other hand, claimed the artist had committed career suicide. The art in the series showed Koons and his then-wife, Italian porn star Ilona Staller, in different sexual situations that left little, if anything, to the imagination. Audiences found it hard to find the meaning behind this series much less how it could be displayed in such esteemed museums and galleries. Creating entire series around vapid objects and subjects is something by which Koons is known, yet not always applauded for, "Koons's work is impersonal, repetitive, awe-inspiring but largely uninsightful, uninflected with any of the ambivalence about the world we live in today that animates most critically lauded contemporary art." Through it all, however, Koons remains true to his intentions, creating work that he wishes to allow viewers to emotionally participate in. At a Jeff Koons exhibit, it's more than the piece of matter in front of a viewer, it's about the viewers themselves. The focus of the experience is how the audience reacts and reflects when confronted by the objects on display. Unlike other artists that keep to conventional art dialogue, Koons prefers to fully accept the unconventional, "I believe in advertisement and media completely, my art and my personal life are based in it." It is through the unconventional that Koons has been able to use banality to create something impactful.
THE 'READYMADE'
It was with banal objects that artist Marcel Duchamp created the genre of the readymade. The genre was made famous by his piece entitled The Fountain in 1917, which "consisted of a standard urinal, usually presented on its back for exhibition purposes rather than upright, and was signed and dated 'R. Mutt 1917'" This piece was excluded from submission to the Society of Independent Artists, a society whose constitution bound the board of directors to accept all submissions. Duchamp led the Dada art movement, one that questioned the long-held beliefs of what art should be. Like any innovation, the wildly diverse avant-garde movement was not met with instant acceptance. Jeff Koons, much like Duchamp, took banal objects from everyday life into the context of the readymade and created art. These readymade creations were artwork whose conceptual ideas took precedence over any aesthetic or material concerns. Audience reaction has most often been split, many people dismissing the art as nonsense. Exhibitions full of inflatable toys, toaster ovens, and even vacuums in the case of The New, are not always well received, "The Koons retrospective is a multimillion-dollar vacuum, but it is also a multimillion-dollar mausoleum in which everything that was ever lively and challenging about avant-gardism and Dada and Duchamp has gone to die." In the instance of creating sculpture from ordinary vacuums, the nuances and associations are what make the final product. By presenting the public with these everyday items in a new context, the viewer is confronted with the reality of the consumerist desire and, for the audience of tomorrow, nostalgia. Koons manages to take a functional object that represents the American lust for material items and make it a forever new art piece, "...by canceling the objects 'useful' function it became art." The usage of these objects gives insight into the way in which aspirations and impulses are transferred into what consumers buy. "It's really the quality of his work, interlocking with economic and social trends, that makes him the signal artist of today's world, if you don't like that, take it up with the world."
THE NEW
The New takes the ordinary object of a vacuum cleaner and gives it new context, transforming the pieces from commodity to sculpture. Koons produces boxes made of Plexiglas and places vacuums within, fluorescent lights illuminating from below. Many of the pieces are multi-levels, showcasing the vacuums as if they were on shelves. Each vacuum is brand new, fresh out of the box, never used. From Dyson to Hoover, the vacuums featured are the top sellers of the decade in which Koons created and displayed the series. This choice detail is an indication of the connection Koons is making between consumer trends at the time of creation. The displays are simple, yet eye catching, drawing the viewer in to analyze the subject with no distractions. The Plexiglas supports the viewing experience, giving a clear view of the merchandise while still yielding detachment, creating a desire for the new commodity. The beaming lights that illuminate the product glisten with white, providing a glow of freshness. An article from MoMA's archives describes a featured piece with imagery in mind, "Two immaculate, unused wet/dry vacuum cleaners are stacked one atop the other and hermetically sealed in Plexiglas boxes lit from below with fluorescent lights. Separated from their domestic role as cleaning machines, the objects are elevated to sculpture." Placed in a new context, the meaning behind the objects is transformed. The vacuums featured can be categorized as bland, mostly white with solid primary and secondary colors making up less than half of the machine's exterior. Encased in Plexiglas, the vacuums and their illumination are clear as day. Several featured pieces entitled New Hoover Convertibles Green, Blue, New Hoover Convertibles, Green, Blue Doubledecker, 1981-87, perfectly radiate the intended newness. In The New, an unlikely subject of a vacuum, transcends any previously held ideas about the separation between art and everyday objects.
Koons work provides a great deal of insight on what his ruminations are and what his art's purpose is. Conceptual art is a more modern genre, thus cultivating a lot of criticism. Koons is aware of this and uses his art to provide viewers with something powerful, "I am continuing the dialogue with conceptual art and what conceptual art can be — how we can continue to create something that can be a benefit to artists and viewers and take us to a higher level of consciousness." For Koons, the biggest aspect of viewing his art is the response and feeling provoked once the art is viewed. His work is not meant to be there to push a premeditated experience onto its viewers. A lot of introspection goes into play in order to foster his creations. Koons' has said that art combines philosophy, theology, and aesthetics. He says, "One of the things that I'm most proud of is making work that lets viewers not feel intimidated by art, but feel that they can emotionally participate in it through their senses and their intellect and be fully engaged. And feel that they can get a foothold in it, to push themselves off of, and lift themselves up on." Specifically speaking on The New series, Koons saw the vacuums as inanimate objects that were to be forever untouched. The series came after his initial The Pre-New series, featuring appliances fastened to light fixtures. After looking back on what he had created with that, Koons felt he was ruining the purity and wholeness of the readymade objects he was using. This conceptual shift birthed what would become The New series. Avoiding any tampering of the objects after the removal from their boxes, he soon began to place vacuums in their Plexiglas vitrines, "Once I encased it, that's when I think it really happened for me. I was starting to make art." The isolated and protected state that the products were left in is eternal, creating a dichotomy between function and decoration. Subsequently, The New created themes and concepts that contributed to the modern view of art. It was through his use of brand new vacuums that aesthetics combined with philosophy and theology. It is from that combination, that the parallels to consumerism are made.
CONSUMERISM
'Consumerism' is defined as "a preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of consumer goods." The industrialization of America, especially post World War II, brought with it an abundance of goods and services that led to overconsumption. Post-depression, the US-based National Association of Manufacturers put together a team of marketers, advertisers, and psychologists in order to boost the economy in a counter strategy to government plans. Due to the efforts made by advertising, consumerism was eventually equated to "The American Way." Americans were to be referred to as consumers in all public discourse. With the emergence of mass production and credit systems, consumerism was quickly backed by government; Consumer spending increased the sales tax and income tax revenues. By the 1950s, consumerism was an integral part of American society, "At first perceived as the American phenomenon, consumerism soon took the world by storm through globalization and the rise of the free market economy." The purchasing of goods and services became synonymous with happiness, success, and a complete American life. With capitalism as its backbone, consumer culture seemed to only benefit the economy and therefore became the accepted norm. Simplified, capitalism is the sum of consumption and consumerism, two forces in place that create a legitimized system in the eyes of everyday citizens. And while consumption can be viewed as social, cultural, and economic practices, consumerism is more of an ideology. While consumption is, for the most part, an act, consumerism is a way of living. It is by virtue of this way of life that consumer capitalism thrived, "Consumer capitalism was able to exploit a situation where the symbolic value of consumer goods was endowed with an increased social significance." It seems that in the context of today, Americans perfectly fit into the consumeristic mold that was created for them. Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on goods and services that they don't necessarily need. There is endless debate over what can be done to combat these statistics but in the sphere of art, there is no lack of highlighting the issues.
Like the artwork produced by Jeff Koons, consumerism has not evaded criticism and the downfalls to the preoccupation with the acquisition of goods often prevail. There are natural constraints to consumerism such as finite fossil fuel resources, debt limits, societal tension, environmental strains, and ultimate limits. The limits of Earth do not take into account what is socially desirable and in the long run there are resources that are impossible to maintain. More relevant to the work of Jeff Koons, however, is the way that consumerism has a way of distorting human values. In writings by economist Thorstein Veblen, he asserted that mass production made it so that the lower classes were on an infinite climb to the top, constantly pursuing a higher status symbol through materialism. Material goods have become fillers in ones' life, "Social critics of consumerism…have argued that relationships with a product or brand name are dysfunctional substitutes for healthy human relationships and that consumer choice is a soporific stand-in for genuine democracy." It is from these themes that a multitude of today's artists are influenced and inspired.
PARALLELS
The main theme throughout The New series, is society's obsession with buying new items and the consumeristic approach to life. At the time that Koons was creating this series, Pop Art and Dada were the prevailing art movements, and each had ideologies that paralleled the work of The New. While infusing art and commodity, Koons was able to make subtle commentary on the way popular culture was being consumed by people indoctrinated by consumerism. Keen to the fact that the everyday American was in constant pursuit of the newest product, Koons created his work with that in mind. He tried to replicate the condition of perfection that a new vacuum is in, using the idea that objects are most powerful, when they are new. In creating the displays for these readymade objects, Koons references back to the displays one would find in a retail store. The way in which he elevates the items to a seemingly higher status brings to light the value society puts on the new commodity.
A store that perfectly parallels exhibitions of The New is Bed Bath & Beyond. Categorized as a domestic merchandise retail store chain, this company is the epitome of American consumerism. Bed Bath & Beyond was essentially the first specialty superstore of its size when it opened and continued to expand in the 1970s, catering to the needs of the everyday person and their household needs. The space and inventory that the company had at the time that Koons was creating his The New series was remarkable compared to competitors, especially during a time when department stores were losing traction. Bed Bath & Beyond transformed a category of shopping and made it significant; the company made "ordinary household products seem exciting, even romantic." Bed Bath & Beyond uses a layout tactic comparable to Koons' displays of his vacuums, grouped together in his plexiglass contraptions. The merchandise emporium groups together related products in order to give buyers the impression that it is made up of multiple specialty stores for the different lines of product. They even used a strategy to encourage impulse buying by creating ease with product location and a sense of a large assortment of products available. They formed huge displays that would reach the ceiling, much like the levels of Koons' sculptures allude to, "Referencing methods of display in retail stores and museums, Koons mounted mass-produced consumer goods such as Hoover vacuum cleaners, and placed them within airtight Plexiglas vitrines as if preserved artifacts." When walking into such a huge store, the eye can not settle on one thing. The experience of shopping in Bed Bath & Beyond is exactly what it is meant to be. Confronted with so many different brands of so many different products, the consumer rarely leaves making just one purchase. The items on sale are the newest products available in the market and the quantity that is presented to the shopper can be overwhelming. This situation creates an urge in the customers to buy more than they need. After seeing the available options, they end up wanting more than what they came for given the appealing nature that the products are presented in. The way Koons displayed his cleaning product sculptures was done in order to provoke the same sense of yearning.
To the shoppers of today, the parallel can still be made with The New. With online shopping growing each day, the possible purchases are endless. With countless links on each store website, every product available in stores can be bought online, and then some. The consumer culture has been brought into the homes of the shopper, making it possible to fulfill the desires of society from one's own bed. Marketing campaigns get more creative with each passing year, and advertisers are finding ways to appeal to the consumer by offering more for less. Consumer culture continues to grow, with entire days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, dedicated to buying as much as one can for as cheap as possible. The themes and intentions Koons had, back when he created The New, were appropriate then but they remain true if not more so in current times. Modern technology and capabilities open doors for more opportunity to feel the effects of the consumerism that Koons was calling to question. It is a fixation on material products, especially never before used products, that human consumption has now become positioned to. It is the parallel which Koons is able to create with The New that makes the series such an affecting entity.
Koons takes cues from retail and makes his series an extraordinary conceptual collection of work, "...Koons models his sculptures on consumer products and manipulates store-bought items to dramatize mass-produced cultural objects while exposing the subtleties of marketing." As a sort of advertisement for his exhibition at The New Museum in 1980, several vacuums faced the street along with a sign that read "The New" in glowing fluorescent red light. The display was set up in such a way that it was unclear at first, or even second glance, whether it was a display for art or a promotion for the sale of vacuums, "Marcia Tucker, curator and co-founder of the museum, recalls passersby who were variously angry, annoyed, curious, and amused" at the sight of the array of vacuums. The readymade series was created during a time when commerce and technology of the future were at the forefront of the American mind. The brands Koons used for his sculptures were those of luxury household appliances. By displaying them so pristinely and encasing them so that they were never to be "un-new," Koons places the consumer object on a pedestal. Much like the displays one would see in Bed Bath & Beyond, (various brand vacuums out of their boxes, up on brightly lit shelves) throughout his exhibitions, Koons creates sculptures that replicate emotions a consumer would feel while shopping. Within the plexiglass walls, the contrast between functionality and decoration is enforced. With the aforementioned consumer capitalism ideology in mind, the readymade sculptures serve to provide a metaphor for ones desire for increased social significance. The products are displayed in such a way that the objects are on a pedestal of desire, so close to the viewer yet virtually unattainable. This is the consumeristic human nature that Koons was hoping to replicate through his series.
A MICROCOSM
Within the genre of conceptual art, the concepts or ideas of the work take precedence over any aesthetic concerns. In the case of The New, it is what the vacuums represent that take priority over any visual qualities. Koons uses mundane objects to create a representational elevation of materialism. The creation of grandeur is an analogy for social mobility, a universal yearning for exaltation; The New serves as a study in human aspiration. Ironically, the physical creations used in the exhibitions for the show, are sold for prices only the elite could afford. Koons' work featured in his retrospective at the Whitney Museum was valued at half a billion dollars. This creates a sort of situational irony: the very thing Koons is remarking on, is happening within the exhibition. The art market that dictates the price of Koons vacuums, is thus representative of a microcosm of consumerism. The New feature, New Hoover Celebrity IV, New Hoover Convertible, New Shelton 5 Gallon Wet/Dry, New Shelton 10 Gallon Wet/Dry Doubledecker is to be sold for an estimated 10,000,000-15,000,000, making the artwork virtually unavailable to the average museum visitor. The opinion of the general public proves to matter not. The average person is not welcome in the fine art commercial market, unless they have the money to validate their worth as a consumer. Whether talking about what constitutes as art, a commercial product, or some fusion of the two, in the end it is seems to simply be about the status your finances grant you. While this may be true, the common museum goer remains mystified when faced with these paradoxes found in a Jeff Koons exhibit.
Another aspect of the microcosm that is created, is the concept of turning a consumers' money into art; Art that is then part of a market that is dictated by the wallets of the affluent. The sculptures made my Jeff Koons are extremely expensive to manufacture given that often times they are created with cutting edge technologies that Koons has developed himself. Due to his tendencies towards perfection, the artist tends to lose money on most of the pieces he makes. After going into debt multiple times, Koons began to sell objects to collectors that did not yet exist. Even more resourceful than the artists of the 19th century, who would create plaster versions of sculptures to be made in bronze or stone once commissioned, Koons often sells sculptures he has no idea how to make. His sculpture, Play-Doh, was paid for 20 years before it came to fruition. In today's commodity driven modern times, museums exhibit art that is widely collected and favored by sponsors. Curators often base their shows upon the idea that the artwork is expensive and famous, so people should and will want to go see it. The idea that because the art is exorbitant and important, it is worth the public's time, is exemplified by any exhibition of The New. Even in a public institution, the attributes of a consumeristic society are prevalent. In the art market, those who pay exorbitant prices, tend to set the market value; The higher the payout, the higher the value will become. The fine art market is atypical in that the market is defined by the overpaying patrons who consequently secure their status of affluence. This situation then fosters an environment present in museums, in which the average visitor is viewing a consumer product that is forever rising in price. This situation is thus a metaphor for a grasp that is infinitely reaching for a higher societal standing. Monetary value is not present unless there is cultural value; The American pressures of consumeristic society have created a correlation between monetary and cultural value.
CONCLUSION
The art in The New is extremely evocative, thought provoking, and aesthetically pleasing, all qualities that can be considered essential in art that is typically considered worth-while. Even though the message Koons conveys is subtle, it is none the less still true even after the elapsed time. It is quite possible that the message he is trying to communicate is lost on the leisurely viewer, but even in such cases, the sculptures have been created in a such a way that they are expressive and powerful with just a passing glance. It is extraordinary that Koons was able to create such potent correspondence between his sculptures and the displays of retail superstores in such understated form. Students, parents, art connoisseurs, and children alike, visit museums with varying perspectives on the art they see. It is worth noting how each and every type of person to view Koons' exhibitions is part of the consumeristic society. Although they may view art in different ways, they each have the humanistic tendencies and desires for the products on retail shelves. By using the object of vacuums, the themes Koons alludes to, are occurring as the various people view the work. Again, akin to the sensations and occurrences that happen in superstores, where shoppers browse the aisles, look up and down the shelves, see the multitude of brands available for each product, the viewers of the exhibitions weave around the various displays, taking in the unflawed qualities of the new products. From the visible installation in the window of the New Museum at 65 5th Avenue, the Hoover floor polishers and vacuums were "Lit by harsh fluorescent bulbs, the window could easily be mistaken for a commercial appliance store display, rather than an art installation." This series accomplishes a unique feat, replicating an everyday phenomenon and making it into artistic expression, displayed in some of the most famous museums around the world. Koons has a true talent as an artist as he is able to take banal objects and turn them into high art.
Ultimately it is the combination of commerce, advertisement, and consumer culture that creates the question of where art and popular culture divide. Jeff Koons is able to appeal to a large audience and call upon the emotions and perceptions they experience in day to day life, outside the world of art. Regardless of people's opinions on his work, the repertoire that Koons has amounted is art with purpose. It is through the use of the 'readymade' object of the vacuum that he successfully uses a combination of aesthetics and deeper meaning to convey a message that is much bigger than any one person. Influenced by the art movements that surrounded him, Koons made sculptures in an impactful way, "Like Andy Warhol with his Campbell's Soup cans and Brillo boxes, Koons elevates artifacts from everyday life into immortal art objects." In the manner of consumeristic manifestation, The New, uses society's vulnerability towards material objects and objectifies the viewers' desires. As an artist, Koons sparks societal conversation around what, as a society, has become the norm: consumption. Although the response to his work has not always been positive, Koons continues to create work that he is proud of, that pushes viewers to fully engage with. The creation of The New series has transformed how art is perceived and contributed myriad of innovative techniques and themes to the art community. After analysis of the nuances and interpretations, it is apparent that the microcosm of consumerism that is formed by The New, is one that calls out the paradoxes within the tendencies of our society. This series will forever be apposite in conversation surrounding human condition.

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