Advertisement

Jeff Koons strips for Annie Leibovitz in Vanity Fair

Jeff Koons is the center of attention at the reception after his appearance onstage as part of the forthcoming Broad museum's lecture series at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.
(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Share via

Jeff Koons doesn’t have an ounce of fat on his sinewy, 59-year-old body. We know this for a fact because the pop artist can be seen stark naked in a new Vanity Fair profile running in the magazine’s July issue.

Koons’ naked photograph was taken by Annie Leibovitz and portrays the artist working out in front of a mirror at the gym of his New York studio. The image shows Koons naked from behind, with giant lettering concealing his genitalia but little else.

The ostensible subject of the profile is Koons’ retrospective exhibition opening June 27 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The show is believed to be the largest museum show of Koons’ career and will later travel to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain.

Advertisement

Among the more colorful details offered by reporter Ingrid Sischy are Koons’ gym habits (he works out every day at noon), and his family life (he drives his kids around in a stretch van).

The Koons retrospective had initially been expected to debut at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. But plans were scrapped last year during a tumultuous period for the institution that saw the departure of President Jeffrey Deitch.

A MOCA spokeswoman later said that the Koons exhibition has not been canceled, and is expected to arrive in L.A. in 2015.

Advertisement

The exhibition will be the final show to take place at the Whitney’s location on New York’s Upper East Side before the museum opens its new building in the city’s Meatpacking District in 2015. The show is scheduled to run at the Whitney through Oct. 19.

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT

Advertisement