Koons & kitsch
(I posted this as a comment on Glutter, thought it deserved it's own post)
The idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is a form of intellectual lazyness. There are plenty of objective criteria to determine what is art and what is not. I'm not saying that's it's all purely objective - if so, there wouldn't be any discussion at all - but the job of art critics is to get away from 'because I say so' arguments and keep the discussion as factual as possible.
One criterium, as mentioned by Tom (in the comments mentioned above), is skill. But it's not a very important one. You can be as skillfull as Vermeer, but if you use that skill to make more Vermeers (like Van Meegeren did) you're simply a criminal.
A more important criterium is innovation. I think this is the most central criterium available. You can be inventive within the existing framework of art - like a painter introducing a new style of painting. But what we're talking about here has to do with content.
If there's one person Koons (I always thought it was Koons, not Koon - the site you linked to says so too) reminds me of, it's Andy Warhol. Warhol changed the subject matter art deals with. He took objects that were considered taboo, or were simly not used in the art world and made them into art. Koons does the same. He takes subjects that the art world loathes (kitsch) and society rejects (porn) and turns them into art.
But why is it art when he does it and not when someone else does it? I think the difference lies in the execution, the depth it is given. This is different from skill. He places these subjects in his own world. A less imaginative person would have simply made stone or bronze sculptures. But Koons, with his love of kitsch, made them in coloured glass. This adds layers of meaning. You could say he uses the taste and style of the bourgeoisie to portray something they loathe. You could come up with many more such theories. That is depth: inviting discussion and theorising. I think that's what's the difference between good art and bad art.
2:19:25 PM 
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