Lot Essay
Louis XIV, 1986, is the largest and one of the most significant works from the series titled Statuary, first exhibited by Koons at Sonnabend Gallery in 1987. In addition to the bust of Louis XIV, the exhibition included castings of a caricature of Bob Hope, a roccoco coach, flowers, a lascivious doctor and his patient, an 18th-century bust of an Italian woman, a mermaid troll, a fisherman troll, a 19th- century rendering of two children, and a rabbit. Cast in stainless steel, Koons gives an industrial material the allure of polished silver.
In a 1987 interview, Koons discussed his medium:
The polished stainless steel has a reflective quality which is associated with a luxurious item. In my work the situation is set up so that the individual from the lower classes feels economic security in a situation. Polished objects have often been displayed by the church and by wealthy people to set a stage of both material security and enlightenment of spiritual nature; the stainless steel is a false reflection of that stage (G. Politi, op. cit., p. 71).
I. Michael Danoff, who organized Koons' 1988 exhibition in Chicago, commented on the artist's choice of subject matter:
Koons sees the rabbit as lower class and the Louis XIV as upper class, but both are leveled by the stainless steel, a common manufactured substance. Leveling is a theme running throughout Koons's work beginning with the flotation tanks...leveling has social impact--indicating a classless society in which enforced hierarchies do not exist and in which social equilibrium has been achieved (I.M. Danoff, Jeff Koons, Chicago 1988, p. 9).
Koons explained the thinking behind his 1986 Statuary exhibition as follows:
I wanted to do art that looked like it was almost out of the control of myself, the artist, to show--on the one hand--that if you put art in the hand of a maniac--the Louis XIV--that art will become reflective of ego and become decorative, whoever's in political control of it, just as if you give art to the masses-- which would be Bob Hope or the rabbit--it would become reflective of mass ego and again be just decorative (A. Schwartzman, "The Yippie-Yuppie Artist," Manhattan Inc., December 1987, p. 147).
Taken as a whole, the objects in the series evoke a world of desire reflected back on itself, its presence suggested by the frozen blankness of the material in which it is embodied...What we see is our frustrated desire to touch, to hold, and in the context of an art gallery to own (J. Caldwell, "Jeff Koons: The Way We Live Now", Jeff Koons, San Francisco 1992, p. 12).
In a 1987 interview, Koons discussed his medium:
The polished stainless steel has a reflective quality which is associated with a luxurious item. In my work the situation is set up so that the individual from the lower classes feels economic security in a situation. Polished objects have often been displayed by the church and by wealthy people to set a stage of both material security and enlightenment of spiritual nature; the stainless steel is a false reflection of that stage (G. Politi, op. cit., p. 71).
I. Michael Danoff, who organized Koons' 1988 exhibition in Chicago, commented on the artist's choice of subject matter:
Koons sees the rabbit as lower class and the Louis XIV as upper class, but both are leveled by the stainless steel, a common manufactured substance. Leveling is a theme running throughout Koons's work beginning with the flotation tanks...leveling has social impact--indicating a classless society in which enforced hierarchies do not exist and in which social equilibrium has been achieved (I.M. Danoff, Jeff Koons, Chicago 1988, p. 9).
Koons explained the thinking behind his 1986 Statuary exhibition as follows:
I wanted to do art that looked like it was almost out of the control of myself, the artist, to show--on the one hand--that if you put art in the hand of a maniac--the Louis XIV--that art will become reflective of ego and become decorative, whoever's in political control of it, just as if you give art to the masses-- which would be Bob Hope or the rabbit--it would become reflective of mass ego and again be just decorative (A. Schwartzman, "The Yippie-Yuppie Artist," Manhattan Inc., December 1987, p. 147).
Taken as a whole, the objects in the series evoke a world of desire reflected back on itself, its presence suggested by the frozen blankness of the material in which it is embodied...What we see is our frustrated desire to touch, to hold, and in the context of an art gallery to own (J. Caldwell, "Jeff Koons: The Way We Live Now", Jeff Koons, San Francisco 1992, p. 12).