What's "Kitsch" in Versailles is Cool in Bilbao – Artist Jeff Koons

During the summer we took a family vacation and rented a little villa in the center of Auvergne in a tiny village. Then we spent another week in the heart of Basque country – between the French and Spanish borders.  For me, one of the highlights of the trip was getting to drive down into Spain and visiting the Guggenheim Bilbao.

One of the artists whose work was on display is that of Jeff Koons.  He created “Puppy” which is a huge 3-dimensional dog made out of flowering plants.  Another one of his larger than life sculptures – “Tulips” is also on display.

Koons’ work is on display from now until January 4th at Versailles – and it’s stirring up some controversy.

Some people think that it’s totally inappropriate for Koons’ work to be displayed in a setting like Versailles. Others think it’s time that the museum moves into the 21st century and gets a little modern.

For myself, I’m not sure.  I enjoyed his work at the Bilbao, and I loved the tulips – they look like giant ballons – but they’re actually made of steel with the paper thin sheet of metal over them.  They’re fun, and they’re definitely different.

Here’s a photo I took of “Puppy” – like I said, it’s at the front of the Guggenheim Bilbao, and there are still

lots of flowers on it, but I’ll bet it’s really something in the spring! Here’s a little history of puppy: Koons was commissioned in 1992 to create a piece for an art exhibition in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

The result was Puppy.  Puppy is forty-three foot (12.4 m) tall.  It’s a topiary sculpture of a West Highland White Terrier puppy on a steel substructure and completely covered in a variety of colorful flowers.

In 1995, the sculpture was dismantled and re-erected at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Sydney Harbor, but this time with a new stainless steel frame that housed an internal irrigation system too.

Puppy was purchased in 1997 by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and installed on the terrace outside the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.

It also wasn’t without some controversy – would you believe that three men – disguised as gardeners – actually tried to blow Puppy up before the dedication?  They tried to plant (pardon the pun) flower pots filled with explosives near the sculpture, but the Bilbao police foiled the crime!

In the summer of 2000, the artwork travelled to New York to be part of a temporary exhibition at the  Rockefeller Center.

As for Koons’ work in Versailles, you’ll have to be the judge yourself.  Click on the link and you can see the Koons exhibition for yourself – it’s the next best thing to being there.

After you’ve checked it out, let me know what you think…

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Tags:Guggenheim Bilbao,Jeff Koons,Puppy,Tulips,Verrsailles

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