JEFF KOONS
curated by Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Lucía Agirre
Guggenheim Museum
Avenida Abandoibarra 2 - Bilbao
9/5/2015 - 27/9/2015
One of the hallmarks of the BBVA Foundation has always been its support for the advancement of knowledge and innovation, be it in basic and environmental sciences, cutting-edge technology, biomedicine, healthcare, the humanities, or general culture. Acting as a driving force of high-impact cultural activities is part of the strategic plan that the Foundation practices through long-term programs and with first-rate partners. Our collaboration as Strategic Trustee of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao fits within this context. This partnership, which dates back to the opening of the Museum eighteen years ago, has made it possible to organize exhibitions featuring major works of art that had never previously been shown in Spain. It has also made it possible to implement truly original approaches in exhibition concept and design. Today, we are proud to present the most important retrospective to date devoted to the celebrated contemporary artist Jeff Koons. After a world tour that included the Whitney Museum in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the retrospective is reaching port at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Around a hundred pieces from Koons’s various artistic stages afford the public the opportunity to survey Koons’s career and the full scope of his work, which constitutes a personal reaffirmation of the artist. His oeuvre, whose diverse series from the 1970s up through the present day are displayed chronologically in the Museum’s galleries, is populated with art historical references, especially to Surrealism, Pop Art, and Dadaism.
One noteworthy aspect of Koons’s artistic output is the evolution in his use of the readymade concept. Koons gradually disrupts the notion of the readymade as it was formulated by Duchamp, transitioning from direct exhibition of industrial objects to reproducing them, making changes in material, scale, and possible meaning.
Koons’s work lacks the aura of inaccessibility that often surrounds other contemporary creations. Very much to the contrary, his art is open, meant to seduce, and has proven attractive to the general public. Koons considers art to be a driving force of social change that helps us go beyond our limits, and his work draws from acceptance of ourselves and of our respective cultural histories.
With extraordinary tenacity, Koons always strives to achieve what he sets out to do. One of his primary concerns is giving his works an exquisite formal finish, an aspect he plans carefully and painstakingly, and which often requires cutting-edge technology. His creative process requires a wide array of mediums, as evidenced in the final object: his creations function as icons of modern society, symbols of popular culture, a celebration and, at times, a critique of contemporary taste. Koons is also the creator of emblematic pieces such as Puppy, the sculpture standing outside the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao that has become Bilbao’s true icon.
The BBVA Foundation is proud to contribute to making exhibitions of this ambition possible. The retrospective enjoyed a warm reception at its New York and Paris venues, and I am sure that the Bilbao audience will have a similarly enthusiastic welcome in store for the work of Jeff Koons, an artist who leaves no one indifferent.
We congratulate the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s team of world-class professionals, headed by Juan Ignacio Vidarte, and curators Scott Rothkopf and Lucía Agirre, who made this exhibition possible by once again turning Bilbao into a national and international hub of contemporary culture. We would like to thank them for inviting us to take part in this excellent museum project that has become an international benchmark.
Image: Rabbit, 1986, Stainless steel, 104.10 x 48.30 x 30.50 cm
curated by Scott Rothkopf, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Curator and Lucía Agirre
Guggenheim Museum
Avenida Abandoibarra 2 - Bilbao
9/5/2015 - 27/9/2015
One of the hallmarks of the BBVA Foundation has always been its support for the advancement of knowledge and innovation, be it in basic and environmental sciences, cutting-edge technology, biomedicine, healthcare, the humanities, or general culture. Acting as a driving force of high-impact cultural activities is part of the strategic plan that the Foundation practices through long-term programs and with first-rate partners. Our collaboration as Strategic Trustee of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao fits within this context. This partnership, which dates back to the opening of the Museum eighteen years ago, has made it possible to organize exhibitions featuring major works of art that had never previously been shown in Spain. It has also made it possible to implement truly original approaches in exhibition concept and design. Today, we are proud to present the most important retrospective to date devoted to the celebrated contemporary artist Jeff Koons. After a world tour that included the Whitney Museum in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the retrospective is reaching port at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Around a hundred pieces from Koons’s various artistic stages afford the public the opportunity to survey Koons’s career and the full scope of his work, which constitutes a personal reaffirmation of the artist. His oeuvre, whose diverse series from the 1970s up through the present day are displayed chronologically in the Museum’s galleries, is populated with art historical references, especially to Surrealism, Pop Art, and Dadaism.
One noteworthy aspect of Koons’s artistic output is the evolution in his use of the readymade concept. Koons gradually disrupts the notion of the readymade as it was formulated by Duchamp, transitioning from direct exhibition of industrial objects to reproducing them, making changes in material, scale, and possible meaning.
Koons’s work lacks the aura of inaccessibility that often surrounds other contemporary creations. Very much to the contrary, his art is open, meant to seduce, and has proven attractive to the general public. Koons considers art to be a driving force of social change that helps us go beyond our limits, and his work draws from acceptance of ourselves and of our respective cultural histories.
With extraordinary tenacity, Koons always strives to achieve what he sets out to do. One of his primary concerns is giving his works an exquisite formal finish, an aspect he plans carefully and painstakingly, and which often requires cutting-edge technology. His creative process requires a wide array of mediums, as evidenced in the final object: his creations function as icons of modern society, symbols of popular culture, a celebration and, at times, a critique of contemporary taste. Koons is also the creator of emblematic pieces such as Puppy, the sculpture standing outside the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao that has become Bilbao’s true icon.
The BBVA Foundation is proud to contribute to making exhibitions of this ambition possible. The retrospective enjoyed a warm reception at its New York and Paris venues, and I am sure that the Bilbao audience will have a similarly enthusiastic welcome in store for the work of Jeff Koons, an artist who leaves no one indifferent.
We congratulate the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s team of world-class professionals, headed by Juan Ignacio Vidarte, and curators Scott Rothkopf and Lucía Agirre, who made this exhibition possible by once again turning Bilbao into a national and international hub of contemporary culture. We would like to thank them for inviting us to take part in this excellent museum project that has become an international benchmark.
Image: Rabbit, 1986, Stainless steel, 104.10 x 48.30 x 30.50 cm
