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Three Puppies…..Two by Jeff Koons

 

This week we will be choosing our new family member. A young 8 weeks old puppy. Breed Irish Glen of Imaal terrier and ….we hope…. a new friend for our dog Boris. An important choice , one which would make us all happy for the next 12 years or maybe more. About the same time in years i am living now with two other puppies.

koons-puppies
Koons puppies

These were  made as souvenires by the Bilbao Guggenheim museum. In the first few years they had an agreement with Koons to make these PUPPIES after the very large one in front of the Guggenheim museum. Each season this extremely large sculpture shows itself in a different way. In spring with flowers , in autumn the fall version which is slightly brown, but always it is the first thing you will see at the entrance of the Gehry designed museum. Together with the Matter of Time by Serra these are both the most iconic parts of the collection of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. About 3 years ago we visited the museum for the 5th time and i tried to by my another of the Koons puppies. No puppy was in the store available and i learned that Koons had withdrawn his permission to make the Puppy any longer and sell it in the store as a souvenir. No official puppies are there in the Guggenheim store. None can be bought…except outside in the souvenir shops you can still find snowballs with and  ceramic puppies of the famous statue outside. These are non authorized puppies. A nice remembrance to your visit of Bilbao , but not the same quality of the official ones. Now and then ,one is offerend at auction fetching prices of 200-450 euros. When i will find one again, i will let you know at www.ftn-books.com, where of course the books on Koons are available, but unfortunately not a Koons puppy because mine are not for sale.

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Jeff Koons / Ushering in Banality

 

The first time i could see the works by Jeff Koons in a museum setting was during his first exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. It was 1992 and Wim Beeren, the former director of the Stedelijk, had just bought Ushering in Banality. It was  a scandal , because of the price he had paid for the sculpture. ( If i remember well it was 300.000 guilders / is $ 120.000) …. a steal, but more important it is still on show and one of the works that raises many smiles. I even saw people taking photographs leaning on the statue. Of course this is not allowed , but it shows the popularity of this impressive work.

Since, i have encountered on many occasions the works by Koons in different settings and he always amazes me. There are several in the Guggenheim in Bilbao ( In and outside the building), of which the most important is the very large PUPPY outside covered with flowers. Koons is an artist who shocks and pleases, but in almost all cases , you look differently at an object after you have seen the work  Koons has made after it.

For me it means …i can not pass a shop with “Hummel” statues without thinking about the USHERING IN BANALITY by Koons.

For some nice publications on Koons visit my shop www.ftn-books.com