Popeye Skateboard
Jeff Koons, one of the leading artists in the world, reinterprets a detail of his 2008 oil painting Triple Popeye, a layered and hand-painted composition with the iconic cartoon character, Popeye. Here we see the fictional sailor clutching a can of spinach, his life-force, and posing triumphantly amid colorful gestures and a reflective silver line drawing to give a sense of movement. Popeye Skateboard, 2021, utilises a triptych of skateboards as its canvas.
“Popeye is about an image of, ‘I am what I am.’ Kind of a symbol of self-acceptance that you have to embrace who you are. Popeye has his spinach. Spinach brings about his transcendence, and brings about his power. That’s what art [is]. Art is our spinach.” - JEFF KOONS
