Jeff Koons’ “Celebration” series, which includes those exceptionally giant, perfectly shiny balloon animals, is a bit child-centric. Specifically, it seems to be about “the absence of a child” — an opulent, emotionally overwhelming ode to Koons’ little son, Ludwig Maximillian, who was kidnapped to Europe by the artist’s ex.
Now, in a small classroom at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Sunnyside, Queens, children aged three to seven can take a two-hour, $35-per-session class inspired by the art of Jeff Koons.
The Daily News visited the classroom last week, reporting that kids were recreating Jeff Koons’ Play-doh (which is an enormous pile of what looks like play-doh, currently on view at the Whitney). They also made some regular-sized balloon animals and a “foil reproduction” of Koons’ Jim Beam J.B. Turner Train.
The class meets every Thursday to turn Jeff Koons’ art back into the little child-things that they resemble… when you stand very, very far away… and pretend that context, scale, and concept don’t exist, which will be easy because you’re three years old.
The class is even planning on taking a field trip to see the Whitney retrospective, which actually sounds like a great idea. Here’s the perfect time and place to tell your kids about how the birds and the bees fuck, violently divorce, lose their children, and spend the next several years rapturously making giant, perfect things that sort of look like toys. (Image: Art For Hope)
