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Jeff Koons

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The artist plans to change that and set the record straight in a new book that features a series of interviews with his longtime friend, curator Sir Norman Rosenthal.The Wylie Agency is currently shopping the book, The Confessions of Jeff Koons, to publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Koons says the discussions in the book cover the “philosophical base” of his work, which he says has been routinely misunderstood. Explaining his work, Koons says, “It’s about having needs met, but these needs are much more profound than economic needs,” noting that his work has often been read as an extended commentary on consumerism.

Rosenthal and Koons have been friends for some time, according to the artist, who notes that Rosenthal was the first person to see Koons’s large Puppy made of flowers when it was shown in Arolsen, Germany, in 1992. “[A]t the time I felt a little vulnerable—I didn’t know if the piece was going to be received well,” Koons tells the Observer. “[H]e just loved it, and it made me feel pretty confident.”

If the book goes to print, Koons, already one of the world’s leading artists, will enjoy another honor with theologian St. Augustine and philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who also had books titled Confessions.

Read more at the New York Observer.