The sentimental life of commodities: the aesthetics of cuteness and its play of power in the art of Jeff Koons

Abstract

The present paper analyzes a few works by artist Jeff Koons using the vernacular aesthetic category cute. In his sculptures representing critters and toys, Koons gives formal expression to the contradictions and ambiguities of cuteness, making explicit the ambivalent feelings and longings that underpin the relationship between the consumer- spectators of late capitalism and the commodities that surround them. Re ecting on commodities and consumption – cultural consumption included – in light of the aesthetics of cuteness helps us, or so we argue, to better understand the very place of art in a globalized circuit increasingly dominated by neoliberal market logic. The work of Koons, one of the most popular and nancially successful contemporary artists, is a privileged vantage point from which to observe power shifts in the eld of visual arts.