Image: Jeff Koons Puppy, 1992
Guardian of the Guggenheim.
American artist Jeff Koon, father of 8, previously married to La Cicciolina (a former porn star and latter member if the Italian parliament), currently lives in a “mega mansion” in New York and creates art with the intention to, in his own words, “communicate with the masses” (guggenheim.org 2017).
Jeff Koon and I have nothing in common and despite such wild differences, when I visited Guggenheim Bilbao Museo earlier this year, his piece Puppy filled me with joy. I am in awe of Koons who, through installing this fantasy piece into the landscape, has provided and achieved an ever changing narrative of reality transposed with fantasy.
Puppy is 43 feet tall. A strong and valiant guardian of Guggenheim Bilbao museum it’s an astonishing piece and it shapes and alters the landscape it sits within according to season. Inspiration comes from “Visiting baroque churches in Europe and trying to put everything I observed about the baroque into the work” (Koons, 2011). Created and modelled by computer the outcome is a West Highland terrier covered in 60,000 flowers; charming, sentimental and imposing due to it’s size. The piece demonstrates the cycle of birth and death: “you’ll have growth and at a certain moment there’s a peak and actually a decline at the same time, it’s the continuation of a journey” (Koons 2011).
References
GUGGENHEIM. (2017) Collection Online. [Online]. Available at https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/48. [Accessed 10/09/2017]
KALDOR ART PROJECTS. (2011) Project 10 Jeff Koons. [Online]. Available at http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-10-jeff-koons [Accessed 15/09/2017]
KOONS, J. (1992) Puppy. [Stainless steel, soil, and flowering plants]. Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Spain.
