12-meter high piece depicts a giant hand squeezing a bouquet of eleven wilted tulips. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
According to the New York Times, the Brooklyn Rail Arts Journal was about to publish a seemingly flattering review of Jeff Koons’ Bouquet of Tulips, a sculpture intended to be a memorial for the victims of coordinated terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015, in Paris. At least 130 people were killed, and more than 350 were injured—New York Times article.
Transparency alert: I do like Jeff Koons’ work. It is familiar knowledge that assistants create the bulk of his work, if not all, and that he lacks the skills to make any of the art he sells. Some of his art if arguably not most, demonstrably plagiarized. To wit, Jeff Koons was “Found Guilty of Plagiarism in Paris and Ordered to Pay $168,000 to the Creator of an Ad created by Franck Davidovici.” How can any critic or colleague respect that? I argue that Koons’ work is nothing more than a “financial instrument” for the rich to either hoard and donate as a tax write-off or as an art flip.
So here is what happened: an art historian named Professor Romy Golan wrote a review and summation about the Bouquet of Tulips Memorial for the Brooklyn Rail, and they seemingly liked it. The Brooklyn Rail editor said: “It does justice to the memorial, its legacy, and its historical significance…”
Professor Romy Golan, a renowned art scholar, has taught at esteemed institutions like Vassar College and Yale University. Her influential works include "Modernity and Nostalgia: Art and Politics in France Between the Wars" and "Muralnomad: The Paradox of Wall Painting, Europe 1927-1957." Her latest book, "Flashback, Eclipse: The Political Imaginary of Italian Art in the 1960s," underscores her focus on the intersection of art and politics. Currently, she mentors students on topics ranging from Die Brücke to Le Corbusier's museum designs while exploring politics and stagecraft. Professor Golan is a respected authority in 20th-century art and its societal contexts. The woman has “street cred.”
An arm holding up dying flowers, which Golan suggested was reminiscent of a 1937 mural by Fernand Léger and Charlotte Perriand, titled “Essential Happiness, New Pleasures.” For me, that is the smoking gun here! What was allegedly said to Golan by the Brooklyn Rail was: “Jeff’s concerns,” …Golan had misrepresented his sculpture as “a symbol of violence” and asked that her essay not be published “because of its defamation to Jeff.” i.e., French artists, French artwork, and a French civil court history of plagiarism. My two takeaways are this: With such power over art journals, One could argue that he has the power to manufacture consent by way of adulation and praise, rather than serious art critique and honesty.