The Most Lupine of the Wolves of Wall Street? Jeff Koons and Artistic Practice as Hedge Fund Capitalism

Abstract

Peter Schjeldahl corrects the perception of Jeff Koons being the Devil – ‘he is really only a subaltern demon: Beelzebub, Satan’s minister without portfolio at large. Koons attends to details of the Evil One’s plan.’ Why does Koons attract such opprobrium, however tongue-in- cheek its expression? Holding the title of the world’s most expensive living artist is sure to attract envious detraction but, despite his paintings garnering similar prices, David Hockney, in his homeland at least, is considered a ‘national treasure’. Koons may be well-off for an artist, but his wealth is modest in comparison to the value of the deceased estates of artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg or Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose reputations seem to be untainted by greed. Artists, including Salvador Dali and Damien Hirst, who have openly sought wealth through their artistic practice offend the lingering Romantic sentiment of great artists being above the lure of Mammon. Koons not only seeks super-profits for peddling kitsch commodities, he does so in a way analogous to hedge fund capitalism. As hedge funds are parasitic on the business of making things and providing services, so Koons’s artistic practice includes infringing others’ copyright and exploiting workers, while generating inordinate profits for himself and his investors. Koons was, once a commodities trader on Wall Street, this paper, which is a draft work in progress, considers whether he is perhaps the most lupine of them all and, therefore, a paragon of our time.