Puppy, Guggenheim Museum

Jeff Koons
1992;1997



View in front of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum

This floral sculpture of a West Highland terrier has been located at several sites. It was first created in 1992 for a temporary exhibit in Germany. It was moved to the front of the Guggenheim in 1997 as part of the opening exhibit and was later exhibited in Rockefeller Center in New York City. It is now part of the permanent collection of the Bilbao Guggenheim--and some a say a symbol for the city. The Rockefeller Center version stood 43-feet tall and was made of 70, 000 fresh flowers. A stainless steel armature holds over 25 tons of soil watered by an internal irrigation system.
 
While many have affection for a sentimental image such as this (done in flowers no less), the artist's tone is not entirely clear: does he embrace such a kitsch image or is he poking fun? Koons is often considered a latter-day Pop artist; the same kinds of questions have been asked of much Pop art.
 



See also Koons' stainless steel sculpture, Kiepenkerl, at the Hirshhorn Museum.

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© 2005 Mary Ann Sullivan. I have photographed (on site), scanned, and manipulated all the images on these pages. Please feel free to use them for personal or educational purposes. (I would appreciate being told if you find them useful.) They are not available for commercial purposes without my explicit permission.

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