Koons can be linked to a range of art movements, but his work is most closely aligned with Pop Art and artists such as Andy Warhol.

In outsourcing the actual production of his work, Koons raises questions about authenticity and what it means to be an artist.

Although carefully designed by Koons, his work is created in his studio by a large staff force that build, paint, or fabricate his pieces, often producing multiple copies of the same artwork.

In this manner the viewer becomes part of the piece itself and their changing reflection alters how they encounter the work, making it a very personal experience.

Mirrors and highly-polished surfaces feature in many of Koons' works and he favours these for both their flawless finish and the fact that they allow the viewer to see themselves in the artwork.

By collecting Koons, collectors and museums show that they can take a joke.

Somewhat paradoxically, his embrace of the common place has also won over the most discerning and ostensibly highbrow audiences. Despite his consumer-focused points of reference, however, he still seeks to challenge people and 'create work that doesn't make viewers feel they're being spoken down to'. In the 1980s, Koons' engagement with popular objects attracted those who felt excluded by art world elitism making him an accessible and powerful cultural figure.This has made him a very divisive figure in the art world and he has drawn criticism for the kitsch, crude nature of his art, and the objectification of women in many of his pieces. A significant departure from the modernist ideal of the misunderstood visionary, Koons is the anti-modernist, a shrewd, self-proclaimed crowd-pleaser, and avid promoter of his own work.

This marketing strategy has been very successful, and his work garners some of the highest prices of any living artist. Rather than offending the art snob, Koons has challenged top collectors to revise their notions of what is fine art. Many of his pieces look cheap, but are expensive, an ingenious reversal of economic logic that forms the basis for his commercial success. In doing so, he initiates a dialogue about the role of material objects in our lives and the consumerism of society as a whole. Deriving inspiration from everyday items including children's toys, cartoon characters, porcelain figurines, and party decorations, Koons' appropriates advertising campaigns and consumer goods alike.

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