One thing that comes to mind with Jeff Koons’s work is not what makes it good or bad, but a genuine curiosity about the nature of its perception in his fan base. It goes without saying that brilliant and redoubtable self-promotion has played an essential part in Koons’s career.

The dream of Olson’s poem represents “what we know went on,” as opposed to any kind of objective version of history. This could apply to the painter Natalie Edgar at first in a literal sense; she was the wife of Philip Pavia, one of the founders of The Club, where Abstract Expressionism had its beginnings.