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Lot Essay
Gazing Ball (Ariadne) belongs to Jeff Koons’s series of ‘Gazing Ball Sculptures’. Created in 2013, these works consist of pristine white plaster replicas of iconic ancient statues—as well as of suburban objects such as mailboxes and birdbaths—each adorned with a reflective blue glass orb. The gazing balls are inspired by popular lawn ornaments Koons saw in his childhood neighbourhood of York, Pennsylvania, but take on a transcendent quality in these works. They reflect the sculpture, the viewer and the surrounding space, collapsing centuries of art history into a single interactive sphere. The present work is based on a version of one of the most famous statues of antiquity, depicting the sleeping Cretan princess Ariadne. The figure’s repose enhances the dreamlike aspect of the reflective globe, which, says Koons, ‘represents the vastness of the universe and at the same time the intimacy of right here, right now’ (quoted in B. Powers, ‘A Talk with Jeff Koons’, Art News, Spring 2016, p. 29).
These sculptures engage with the same high-low polarities that have shaped much of Koons’s art. While the plaster-cast evokes mass production, each work is finely moulded and meticulously finished: Koons devised a special type of plaster for the series. The gazing balls mimic kitsch decorations sold in garden centres, but were individually hand-blown by glass fabricators in Punxsutawney. Koons has identified the mirror-polished head of his iconic sculpture Rabbit (1986) as a precursor to the gazing ball motif. As in Rabbit and the ensuing Celebration series—which gleam in colour-coated stainless steel—the sphere’s surface serves as an affirmation of the viewer, bringing them into the artwork. ‘The experience is about you, your desires, your participation, your relationship with the image’, Koons says (quoted in ibid.). He pursues formal perfection in these works with a near-fanatical attention to detail and materiality. To him, they are expressions of devotion.
In his interventions with appropriated artworks, Koons follows in the Dadaist footsteps of Marcel Duchamp. ‘… I always just wanted to be involved in a dialogue with the avant-garde’, he says. ‘This is my family, these are the artists I have interest in, the joy that has enriched my life’ (quoted in A. Needham, ‘Jeff Koons on his Gazing Ball Paintings: “It’s not about copying”’, The Guardian, 9 November 2015). He followed the ‘Gazing Ball Sculptures’ with a series of paintings in 2015, where the blue baubles project from simulacra of pictures such as the Mona Lisa. The plaster statues, however, have an additional art-historical dimension. Many well-known masterpieces of western sculpture are later copies of ancient Roman models, which themselves were often based on lost Hellenistic originals: imitation, rather than individual expression, was regarded as an essential creative principle during the Classical and Renaissance eras.
The best-known version of the Ariadne is in the collection of the Vatican Museums, and is a Roman marble copy after a Hellenistic sculpture from the 2nd century BC. Other Roman variants in existence, as well as smaller-scale examples from the same period, attest to a trade in the figure as a popular image. Initially identified as Cleopatra, she was transmitted from antiquity to the Renaissance and beyond, often appearing as a prop in eighteenth-century portraits of Grand Tourists. Koons’s work derives from a French adaptation of the Roman copy made in 1543 by the artist Francesco Primaticcio, who visited the papal collections to choose the best examples of statuary to replicate for King Francis I at the Château de Fontainebleau. The Ariadne was cast in plaster and then in bronze: in the process the figure was reclined further and her limbs lengthened, likely to accord with French Mannerist standards of female beauty. In Gazing Ball (Ariadne), Koons adds another chapter to her story, with the gazing ball acting as a focal point, a philosophical device and a site of transformation.
These sculptures engage with the same high-low polarities that have shaped much of Koons’s art. While the plaster-cast evokes mass production, each work is finely moulded and meticulously finished: Koons devised a special type of plaster for the series. The gazing balls mimic kitsch decorations sold in garden centres, but were individually hand-blown by glass fabricators in Punxsutawney. Koons has identified the mirror-polished head of his iconic sculpture Rabbit (1986) as a precursor to the gazing ball motif. As in Rabbit and the ensuing Celebration series—which gleam in colour-coated stainless steel—the sphere’s surface serves as an affirmation of the viewer, bringing them into the artwork. ‘The experience is about you, your desires, your participation, your relationship with the image’, Koons says (quoted in ibid.). He pursues formal perfection in these works with a near-fanatical attention to detail and materiality. To him, they are expressions of devotion.
In his interventions with appropriated artworks, Koons follows in the Dadaist footsteps of Marcel Duchamp. ‘… I always just wanted to be involved in a dialogue with the avant-garde’, he says. ‘This is my family, these are the artists I have interest in, the joy that has enriched my life’ (quoted in A. Needham, ‘Jeff Koons on his Gazing Ball Paintings: “It’s not about copying”’, The Guardian, 9 November 2015). He followed the ‘Gazing Ball Sculptures’ with a series of paintings in 2015, where the blue baubles project from simulacra of pictures such as the Mona Lisa. The plaster statues, however, have an additional art-historical dimension. Many well-known masterpieces of western sculpture are later copies of ancient Roman models, which themselves were often based on lost Hellenistic originals: imitation, rather than individual expression, was regarded as an essential creative principle during the Classical and Renaissance eras.
The best-known version of the Ariadne is in the collection of the Vatican Museums, and is a Roman marble copy after a Hellenistic sculpture from the 2nd century BC. Other Roman variants in existence, as well as smaller-scale examples from the same period, attest to a trade in the figure as a popular image. Initially identified as Cleopatra, she was transmitted from antiquity to the Renaissance and beyond, often appearing as a prop in eighteenth-century portraits of Grand Tourists. Koons’s work derives from a French adaptation of the Roman copy made in 1543 by the artist Francesco Primaticcio, who visited the papal collections to choose the best examples of statuary to replicate for King Francis I at the Château de Fontainebleau. The Ariadne was cast in plaster and then in bronze: in the process the figure was reclined further and her limbs lengthened, likely to accord with French Mannerist standards of female beauty. In Gazing Ball (Ariadne), Koons adds another chapter to her story, with the gazing ball acting as a focal point, a philosophical device and a site of transformation.