Jeff Koons Takes Over Versailles
When I read that people were protesting the display of Jeff Koons’ work at the chateau de Versailles, I sat there waiting for the punch line to sink in because, really, how could that not be a joke. The artist and site couldn’t be better suited.
Versailles’ ostentation is the perfect backdrop for Koons’ kitsch sculptures. Both take ornamentation over the top, whether gilding everything in sight with silver and gold, or making life-size sculptures of balloon dogs in metallic hot pink. Though centuries divide the two, they both resonate with Rococo excess.
They both are exuberant, lighthearted and fun. Versailles was originally intended as a garden pleasure palace away from it all, and its visitors put play and fantasy first. Koons’ work is the same. Tacky in the best possible way, his work transports low art and makes it glittery and lively. Part of me thinks that if the Sun King was alive today, he’d not only be pleased Koons’ work is on display in his house, he’d hire the artist on the spot.
Image above courtesy of clemmm8/Flickr
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What a perfect setting! The exuberance of the past meet the exuberance of the present. I completely agree. I wish I could see it.
Comment by todd — September 30, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
So utterly ingenuous this comment. Versailles is as far away from kitsch as can be imagined. Crude form and cheap effect was not to his majesty’s liking, and by the way, the rococo came a good hundred years later. Koons at Versailles is the real joke. As with the Emperor’s new clothes, the stupid can be made to believe anything.
Comment by Michael de Bruges — October 6, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
I visited the exhibition. I think it works very well and that there is a real dialectic between the artworks from Jeff Koons and the site of Versailles.
That being said, I can see it is also an attempt for the artist (and his collectors) to elevate his work (and its market value). But the motivation is not that important, after all, most artists try to promote a maximum their work. The thing is that at the end, they don’t decide. It is up to the public and the critics.
By the way, noone knows if his majesty would have liked it or not. It is interesting though to see how kitsch, pop art can dialogue with the history of Versailles. Here is my review: http://bruchansky.name/2008/12/15/about-curating-jeff-koons-at-versailles/
Comment by christophe — December 17, 2008 @ 2:54 am