Arts & Entertainment

Meet Your Instructor

Lesson time 05:55 min

Jeff Koons is one of the most successful and influential American artists of the 21st century. In his MasterClass, Jeff reveals the influences behind his most famous works and guides you through creating art that helps you communicate with the world.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Jeff Koons Teaches Art & Creativity

Jeff Koons

Teaches Art and Creativity

Jeff Koons teaches you how color, scale, form, and more can help you channel your creativity and create the art that’s in you.

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] [VACUUM WHIRRING] ANNOUNCER: Well, he fakes left, throws to his right with that ability to throw it up in the air. JEFF KOONS: What is art? What is it? Is it painting? Is it sculpture? Art is a vehicle that lets us have an impact on the external world and also lets the external world have an impact on us. MAN: He's one of this generation's most influential artists. AUCTIONEER: Tonight, I have the pleasure of selling the Koons Rabbit, an icon of 20th century sculpture, ladies and gentlemen. Here it is. At $80 million is the bid and Jeff Koons' Rabbit, $80. WOMAN: This is the first time the entire museum has been occupied by one artist, a landmark event for such a controversial figure in the art world. - It's a Jeff Koons, K-O-O-N-S. MAN: Is there a more important artist than Jeff Koons today? WOMAN: His work is instantly recognized. JEFF KOONS: You know, when I was younger, art had rules. And it had a structure. It can be looked at as whether it's good or bad. But I really wanted more. I wanted freedom. And art can be absolutely anything. [MUSIC PLAYING] If I think back to my journey in life and as an artist, it began in York, Pennsylvania. My father was an interior decorator and had a furniture store. And what really captivated me was how certain rooms would change. And because it was a furniture store, and different shipments would come of different styles of furniture, maybe one week, one of the rooms in the store would be a living room. And you would maybe have French provincial furniture. And another room would be a dining room. And there would be different styles. So I learned that different colors, different textures, different patterns can affect your feelings and that this visual information, this stimulation, can affect how I felt, how people feel when you experience this. And I was learning this vocabulary, the-- the vocabulary of how to really be interacting with the external world and to be open to it, learning to open myself up to feelings and sensations. I moved to New York when I was around 21 years of age. And I'm-- I'm saying to myself, you know, I can do this. I mean, this is what I want to do. I would like to live this type of life where art is something that I'm involved with every day. I want to be part of the avant-garde, how they dealt with just a total commitment to the realization of their ideas and confronting the reality of their time, what the world was like, the type of tensions that they had in the world, and to try to make sense of it. One of the concepts that the avant-garde would always be working with was the idea of the manifesto. And I remember creating my own manifesto to be forever free in the power, glory, spirituality, and romance liberated in the mainstream, criticality gone. And it was a little bit of a rallying cry to artists that use the tools of art. Use everything you can to communicate with people. And to me, that's what ...

About the Instructor

One of the most important and influential artists working today, Jeff Koons is perhaps best known for his iconic Balloon Dog. Now he’s inviting you to an intimate, thought-provoking conversation about the history, purpose, and pleasures of art. Learn how color, scale, form, and texture can help you express ideas and communicate with others. Leave your self-judgment and fear behind—the world is waiting for your art.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons teaches you how color, scale, form, and more can help you channel your creativity and create the art that’s in you.

Explore the Class