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Why the artist Jeff Koons is skeptical of Instagram

Jeff Koons Credit: : Ben Gabbe/Getty Images
Jeff Koons Credit: : Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

Artist Jeff Koons has a complicated relationship with technology.

“Technology has always been a tool for everyone. For artists, it affected the pigments a painter would use, what surface they would paint on, the kinds of materials they would sculpt with,” he said at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on Thursday. “Technology is always incorporated into the art. But technology is never the art.”

Koons detailed how his artistic process shifted drastically in the late 1990s when he began using a computer.

“I was able to execute my ideas more rapidly and precisely. I’m more and more dependent on it in a liberating way. It has allowed me to achieve my vision more rapidly and precisely,” he said.

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Koons is known for reimagining and sculpting ordinary objects like balloon animals or a woman in a tub. In November 2013, his Balloon Dog (Orange) was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $58.4 million and it’s now the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold at auction.

Since Koons started his wildly successful career in a world without the internet, it’s no surprise that he doesn’t find social media to be his source of inspiration.

When asked about his thoughts on Snapchat, he said, “It’s technology. Social media.”

Though he has nothing against social media platforms, he sees them as having limited value.

“Instagram is social media. I follow it but my creative life happens somewhere else. If I’m walking around and something is really is of interest of me, I don’t just put it out [on the internet],” he said. “I let things resonate a little bit. My art is a platform that consumes my need for some of these social media platforms.”

He posted his first photo on Instagram (FB) three years ago. Though he has only posted 35 photos, he has amassed 176,000 followers. Meanwhile, people have posted nearly 210,000 photos on Instagram that include the hashtag #JeffKoons.

Unlike many young artists who use platforms like Instagram as their primary way to get inspired and get connected to a global audience, Koons said he’s not yet convinced that’s the right strategy for him.

“I find newness and freshness from the people I cross paths with,” he said. “You follow your interests and focus on them, and it connects you to a universal vocabulary. That’s how you find things that are new and interesting and important to society and humanity. Not something that’s just present for a moment.”

While Koons may have the acclaim and fame to carry on without considering his social media strategy, younger artists likely see Instagram as a democratized platform to reach audiences they could otherwise never tap into.

Melody Hahm is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering entrepreneurship, technology and real estate. Follow her on Twitter @melodyhahm.

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