An exhibition in Amsterdam of a work by American artist Jeff Koons had an explosive conclusion when a visitor accidentally shattered it on the final day.
‘Gazing Ball’ was a meticulous copy of an altarpiece by the 16th-century Italian artist Pietro Perugino, Madonna and Child with Four Saints, offset by a blue glass ball. Koons said the purpose of the ball was to transform the work into a three-dimensional interactive experience. ‘You become part of the painting and the painting becomes part of you,’ he told the Volkskrant in an interview shortly before the item went on show in February.
But the kind of interaction that took place in the Nieuwe Kerk on Sunday afternoon was probably not what Koons had in mind. ‘We are still investigating exactly what happened,’ spokesman Martijn van Schieveen told the Volkskrant. He added that the visitor concerned was ‘deeply shocked’ and there was no suggestion of sabotage. ‘He wanted to touch the artwork like lots of other people. Then the ball shattered.’
Van Schieveen would not disclose how much the work was valued for for insurance reasons. He also declined to comment on why visitors were able to come so close to the exhibits. ‘There was a line on the ground to show that visitors are not allowed to get too near. The security guards also watch out that it doesn’t happen.’
Koons has so far not commented on the demise of his ball.
The ‘Gazing Ball’ series first exhibited in New York in 2015. The artist has taken 35 masterpieces, including Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa and Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait Wearing a Hat, had them repainted in oil on canvas, and added a little shelf, painted as if it had sprouted directly from the image.
The show, he added, is “not about being a copy, this is about this union, the concept of participating” – the act of looking and the relationship between the pictures. “Everybody’s in this dialogue of sharing enjoyment and pleasure.”
“These paintings in their own time were some of the greatest masterpieces in western art history, but in this time, this moment, they’re most powerful as they are in this state of gazing.”
Koons is famous for turning kitsch ephemera like balloon dogs and imagery from drinks adverts into art. His restrospective at Paris’s Pompidou Centre was the most successful in the museum’s history, with more than 650,000 visitors. In 2013, a 10ft version of one of his ‘steel dog’ sculpture sold for $58m, the most expensive work by a living artist ever to sell at auction.
*extracted from dutchnews.nl