Lips is a large-scale painting from Jeff Koons's series Easyfun-Ethereal featuring lush food and fashion imagery floating against a pastoral background. The lustrous, lipstick covered lips, locks of hair, corn kernels, and fruit slices, and peach colored liquid are computer-scanned reproductions taken from magazine advertising and the artist's personal photographs, combining familiar yet sometimes unrelated images to create a surreal layered painting rendered with photo-realist perfection. Koons compresses his imagery into the foreground of his works, treating his subjects as purposefully flat, opaque images that seem to deny any specific social critique or psychological implications. Instead, his imagery, which is drawn from pop culture to art historical references.
Born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons is without question one of the most important living artists. He is among the few who successfully extract the essentials from avant-gardism, most notably Pop Art. In his hands, even the most familiar, everyday items transcend commonality to become true icons that manifest the essence of American popular culture. Yet on a broader scope, we are presented with positive messages of acceptance and humanity, themes which resonate universally. Koons works are exhibited throughout the world and are found in numerous public and private collections.