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拍品專文
As one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists, Jeff Koons has spent his career challenging our preconceptions and understanding of art. As part of this mission, his representations of flowers have become one of the artist’s most prolific and celebrated motifs. From the very beginning of his career Koons has used floral forms as a highly symbolic indicator of life, “I have always enjoyed flowers,” the artist has stated, “Since taking art lessons as a child, I have had flowers in my work. I always like the sense that a flower just displays itself. The viewer always finds grace in a flower. Flowers are a symbol that life goes forward” (J. Koons, quoted in M. Codognato & E. Geuna (ed.), Jeff Koons, exh.cat., Naples, 2003, p. 157). For Koons, there are strong parallels between man and flower, all of which course through the heart of his practice.
Representing life, sex, fragility, fertility, joy, and banality, the symbol of the flower has become a powerful and compelling motif for the artist. From his early Inflatables and Statuary series to his stainless-steel Balloon Flowers and the 48-foot-high flower Puppy sculpture, no one emblem within the artist’s oeuvre more fully encapsulates these notions than the present work, his widely exhibited Large Vase of Flowers. In his typically direct and enigmatic manner, Koons describes his polychrome bouquet of spring flowers: “In the Large Vase of Flowers there are 140 flowers. They are very sexual and fertile…” (J. Koons, The Jeff Koons Handbook, London, 1992, p. 126). Executed in 1991, the vibrant, blossom-filled sculpture is an unassuming triumph of the artist’s now iconic Made in Heaven series.
When the series debuted in 1991—at Sonnabend in New York and Max Hetzler in Cologne— Koons’s large paintings of himself with his then-wife were exhibited alongside polychrome sculptures of puppies, cherubs, birds, and flowers. These floral arrangements were the perfect subject matter for the artist’s exploration of the public perception of love, romance, and even sex: after all, they are often presented as a romantic gift or wishful preludes to procreation. And crucially, the very beauty of flowers depends on the natural processes by which they themselves reproduce. In Large Vase of Flowers, and in reality, that beauty is very clear for all to see.
Yet Koons maintains, "In Made in Heaven, I wasn't trying to excite somebody sexually. I was trying to excite them intellectually. I tried to take the sexuality out of the images and to put them onto these objects, the flower pieces and the animals" (J. Koons, quoted in H. W. Holzwarth, ed., op. cit., p. 330). Within the context of the wider Made in Heaven series, the winsome and vibrant Large Vase of Flowers serves as the perfect foil to Koons’s corporeal images, showcasing the beauty and vitality of sex. Thus, with his customary panache, Koons entices his audience to throw fig-leaves and shame back into the Garden of Eden—to discard the entire notion of original sin. With its Baroque styling, the Made in Heaven series casts sex as a form of worship, a way of both celebrating and continuing life. “I believe the way to enter the eternal is through the biological,” Koons has said (J. Koons, op. cit., p. 35).
Stepping away from contemporary conventions, this sense of liberation that Large Vase of Flowers possesses comes in part from the awe-inspiring grandeur evocative of either the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age or the later elaborate eighteenth-century European art that has traces throughout the series. From the idyllic sets to the painted wood sculptures, Made in Heaven summons Baroque aesthetics and decoration. “I use the Baroque to show the public that we are in the realm of the spiritual, the eternal,” he explained, highlighting the role of sculptures such as Large Vase of Flowers within his artistic campaign. “The church uses the Baroque to manipulate and seduce, but in return it does give the public a spiritual experience. My work deals in the vocabulary of the Baroque” (J. Koons, quoted in A. Muthesius, Jeff Koons, Cologne, 1992, p. 158).
Underscoring this notion, Large Vase of Flowers, and its sister-sculptures, continues a method of production first utilized by Koons one year earlier in his Banality series. Banality marked the first time wherein the artist created a series of sculptures that did not depend entirely on ready-made objects. Instead, Koons worked with a team of artisans—he refers to them as “fabricators”—from Southern Germany and Northern Italy who had been mastering their craft for generations, in order to imbue his works with the spirituality that he aimed to achieve. It is this practice that Koons embarked upon over 30 years ago that largely informs his studio practice today.
With artistic direction from Koons, the polychrome wood sculptures in Made in Heaven were crafted in Oberammergau, Germany and Ortisei, Italy, two locations known for their centuries-old woodcarving traditions. And, while the use of skilled sculptors worked to elevate the thematic content of the series, it also ensured that Koons’s sculptures were hand carved and painted to the highest degree of perfection, allowing his idea to take the most exacting form. The year after Large Vase of Flowers was created, Koons unleashed his famous Puppy to the world. “I’d just had my Made in Heaven exhibition, and I’d really opened myself up for the Baroque and the Rococo,” Koons recalled of the time leading up to the execution of the monumental canine. “I became aware of those floral sculptures of Northern Italy and Bavaria. So I thought, Oh, it would be nice to make a living work, a work that shows the lifecycle just like an individual” (J. Koons interview with N. Campbell, Interview, New York, November 2012). While Puppy would rely on living flora, Large Vase of Flowers takes new life from flora that has passed, resurrected and reincarnated as an ever-blooming bouquet.
Representing life, sex, fragility, fertility, joy, and banality, the symbol of the flower has become a powerful and compelling motif for the artist. From his early Inflatables and Statuary series to his stainless-steel Balloon Flowers and the 48-foot-high flower Puppy sculpture, no one emblem within the artist’s oeuvre more fully encapsulates these notions than the present work, his widely exhibited Large Vase of Flowers. In his typically direct and enigmatic manner, Koons describes his polychrome bouquet of spring flowers: “In the Large Vase of Flowers there are 140 flowers. They are very sexual and fertile…” (J. Koons, The Jeff Koons Handbook, London, 1992, p. 126). Executed in 1991, the vibrant, blossom-filled sculpture is an unassuming triumph of the artist’s now iconic Made in Heaven series.
When the series debuted in 1991—at Sonnabend in New York and Max Hetzler in Cologne— Koons’s large paintings of himself with his then-wife were exhibited alongside polychrome sculptures of puppies, cherubs, birds, and flowers. These floral arrangements were the perfect subject matter for the artist’s exploration of the public perception of love, romance, and even sex: after all, they are often presented as a romantic gift or wishful preludes to procreation. And crucially, the very beauty of flowers depends on the natural processes by which they themselves reproduce. In Large Vase of Flowers, and in reality, that beauty is very clear for all to see.
Yet Koons maintains, "In Made in Heaven, I wasn't trying to excite somebody sexually. I was trying to excite them intellectually. I tried to take the sexuality out of the images and to put them onto these objects, the flower pieces and the animals" (J. Koons, quoted in H. W. Holzwarth, ed., op. cit., p. 330). Within the context of the wider Made in Heaven series, the winsome and vibrant Large Vase of Flowers serves as the perfect foil to Koons’s corporeal images, showcasing the beauty and vitality of sex. Thus, with his customary panache, Koons entices his audience to throw fig-leaves and shame back into the Garden of Eden—to discard the entire notion of original sin. With its Baroque styling, the Made in Heaven series casts sex as a form of worship, a way of both celebrating and continuing life. “I believe the way to enter the eternal is through the biological,” Koons has said (J. Koons, op. cit., p. 35).
Stepping away from contemporary conventions, this sense of liberation that Large Vase of Flowers possesses comes in part from the awe-inspiring grandeur evocative of either the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age or the later elaborate eighteenth-century European art that has traces throughout the series. From the idyllic sets to the painted wood sculptures, Made in Heaven summons Baroque aesthetics and decoration. “I use the Baroque to show the public that we are in the realm of the spiritual, the eternal,” he explained, highlighting the role of sculptures such as Large Vase of Flowers within his artistic campaign. “The church uses the Baroque to manipulate and seduce, but in return it does give the public a spiritual experience. My work deals in the vocabulary of the Baroque” (J. Koons, quoted in A. Muthesius, Jeff Koons, Cologne, 1992, p. 158).
Underscoring this notion, Large Vase of Flowers, and its sister-sculptures, continues a method of production first utilized by Koons one year earlier in his Banality series. Banality marked the first time wherein the artist created a series of sculptures that did not depend entirely on ready-made objects. Instead, Koons worked with a team of artisans—he refers to them as “fabricators”—from Southern Germany and Northern Italy who had been mastering their craft for generations, in order to imbue his works with the spirituality that he aimed to achieve. It is this practice that Koons embarked upon over 30 years ago that largely informs his studio practice today.
With artistic direction from Koons, the polychrome wood sculptures in Made in Heaven were crafted in Oberammergau, Germany and Ortisei, Italy, two locations known for their centuries-old woodcarving traditions. And, while the use of skilled sculptors worked to elevate the thematic content of the series, it also ensured that Koons’s sculptures were hand carved and painted to the highest degree of perfection, allowing his idea to take the most exacting form. The year after Large Vase of Flowers was created, Koons unleashed his famous Puppy to the world. “I’d just had my Made in Heaven exhibition, and I’d really opened myself up for the Baroque and the Rococo,” Koons recalled of the time leading up to the execution of the monumental canine. “I became aware of those floral sculptures of Northern Italy and Bavaria. So I thought, Oh, it would be nice to make a living work, a work that shows the lifecycle just like an individual” (J. Koons interview with N. Campbell, Interview, New York, November 2012). While Puppy would rely on living flora, Large Vase of Flowers takes new life from flora that has passed, resurrected and reincarnated as an ever-blooming bouquet.