Merlion
03-24-2006, 07:45 AM
For your reading pleasure.
Art Institute gets a Koons, and she's all wet
March 24, 2006
The Art Institute of Chicago has acquired its first work by one of its flashiest former students for the museum's collection, and she's very clean -- at least in the literal sense.
New York artist Jeff Koons' "Woman in Tub" (1988), a quirky, erotic and some would say hilarious porcelain sculpture of a bathing young woman startled by the appearance of a snorkel between her legs, will be on view in the Art Institute galleries starting today
The piece by Koons, who attended the School of the Art Institute in 1975-76, sold for $1.7 million at Christie's in 2000. A partial gift to the Art Institute from the Stefan T. Edlis Trust, it was part of Koons' series of self-described "banality" works that take on voyeurism and pop-culture imagery. The figure partially covers her breasts, while most of her head and face are missing.
"It was to show the interface between the Victim and the Victimizer," Koons has said. "There's a snorkel and somebody is doing something to her under the water because she's grabbing her breasts for protection. But the viewer also wants to participate and victimize her."
James Rondeau, the museum's contemporary art curator, said he expects viewers to react strongly to the work.
Click here (http://www.suntimes.com/output/nance/cst-ftr-koons24.html) for full article from the Chicago Sun-Times.
A picture of this artwork can be found here (http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/polsky/polsky10-5-00.asp).
Art Institute gets a Koons, and she's all wet
March 24, 2006
The Art Institute of Chicago has acquired its first work by one of its flashiest former students for the museum's collection, and she's very clean -- at least in the literal sense.
New York artist Jeff Koons' "Woman in Tub" (1988), a quirky, erotic and some would say hilarious porcelain sculpture of a bathing young woman startled by the appearance of a snorkel between her legs, will be on view in the Art Institute galleries starting today
The piece by Koons, who attended the School of the Art Institute in 1975-76, sold for $1.7 million at Christie's in 2000. A partial gift to the Art Institute from the Stefan T. Edlis Trust, it was part of Koons' series of self-described "banality" works that take on voyeurism and pop-culture imagery. The figure partially covers her breasts, while most of her head and face are missing.
"It was to show the interface between the Victim and the Victimizer," Koons has said. "There's a snorkel and somebody is doing something to her under the water because she's grabbing her breasts for protection. But the viewer also wants to participate and victimize her."
James Rondeau, the museum's contemporary art curator, said he expects viewers to react strongly to the work.
Click here (http://www.suntimes.com/output/nance/cst-ftr-koons24.html) for full article from the Chicago Sun-Times.
A picture of this artwork can be found here (http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/polsky/polsky10-5-00.asp).