Jeff Koons, Baroque Egg with Bow

Design Art News
Jeff Koons, Baroque Egg with Bow, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
22 February 2012 - 2015

Museums throughout the world have been lining up to exhibit the immense, gleaming orange ‘Easter egg’ with magenta bow ‘Baroque Egg with Bow (Orange/Magenta)’, by multimillionaire artist Jeff Koons. The private collectors, however, chose Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen because of their special link with Rotterdam. The object (over 6 m3) will be on show in the museum for three years.

This week, ‘Baroque Egg with Bow (Orange/Magenta)’ (1994-2008) by the American artist Jeff Koons (1955) has being installed in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The giant ‘Easter egg’ with magenta bow weighs two thousand kilo and is worth millions of Euros. Thanks to the lenders from Rotterdam, the work will be on view for the coming years in the museum’s entrance area. Koons made ten eggs in a period of fourteen years. Each object is part of an important private collection, such as those of François Pinault and Damien Hirst. No single egg belongs to a museum collection. As with many of his works, Koons stimulates several senses with his Eggs.

Jeff Koons is famous for his enormous objects such as gigantic rabbits and religious pigs with which he topped, until recently, the list of best paid artists ever. Koons is a master of enlarging everyday objects to enormous proportions. His “new-pop-art type” works are uncritical blow ups of the consumer society. In his creations, he brings together high and low culture in objects that are seductive, but at the same time überkitsch. His New York studio, where more than 80 people work, is reminiscent (as, too, is his work) of Andy Warhol and his Factory in the sixties.

The ten gigantic eggs by Jeff Koons belong to his famous ‘Celebration Series’ which he began in 1994. Five of the eggs have a smooth surface: the so-called ‘Smooth Eggs’. The other five are called ‘Baroque Eggs’ and look as if they are packed in crumpled foil. At first glance, the design seems banal, but refers to ideas such as (re)birth and fertility; recurring themes in the artist’s work. The coating of the eggs has been applied layer after layer by hand, in order to achieve as glossy an effect as possible. This technique is derived from the automotive industry. Each Egg has been worked on by several people for a whole year.

Other well-known sculptures from the ‘Celebration Series’ are: ‘Balloon Dog’, ‘Hanging Heart’ and ‘Diamond’. This series also includes, in addition to sculptures, a number of oil paintings. The Celebration works have previously been shown in places such as Versailles (Paris), Neue National Galerie (Berlin) and on the roof of The Metropolitan Museum (New York). All creations in the ‘Celebration Series’ are superbly executed technically.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
With thanks to the Bert Kreuk Collection.