Texts by Anette Hüsch and Gudrun Inboden

Jeff Koons’s paintings combine high pixelation of sexual imagery with gestural paint splashes, in an erotic rampage that bursts off the canvas, energized by a friction between photography, painting and digital media. In part an homage to Courbet’s “Origin of the World,” these works argue for the flourishing of libido and aim to make a direct hit upon their viewer: “My work will use everything that it can to communicate. It will use any trick, I’ll do anything- absolutely anything-to communicate and to win the viewer over,” says the artist. Offsetting this quasi-religious solicitousness is Koons’ usual great degree of care in the layering of images, and the pixelated imagery that compels the viewer to stand back some way to process it. (For Koons, pixelation too is a sign of authenticity.) This beautifully produced edition presents five of these new paintings printed on tipped-in color plates.