NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Nov 13 @ 19:00UTC-5 : EST/CDT
PROPERTY FROM
An american collector
JEFF KOONS
(b. 1955)
SILVER SHOES
oil inks on canvas
971/4 x 1431/4 in. (243.3 x 365.8 cm)
executed in 1990
this work is unique plus one artist's proof and of the series
MADE IN HEAVEN
ESTIMATE: $400,000-600,000
PROVENANCE
Sonnabend Gallery, NEW YORK
EXHIBITED
Venice Biennale, APERTO, May 27-September 30, 1990
LITERATURE
A. Mathesius, ed., JEFF KOONS, COLOGNE, 1992, pp. 129-131 (illustrated)
R. Rosenblum, THE JEFF KOONS HANDBOOK, LONDON, 1992,
p. 164 (listed)
First presented at the 1990 Venice Biennale, Koons' monumental MADE IN HEAVEN series of transcendental sensuality, in which he and La Cicciolina, his future wife at the time of creating the series, carried the bliss of perfect love, marriage and sex to such celestial highs in both mural-sized color canvases and waxwork-like statues, explores human desires and aspirations. The MADE IN HEAVEN series challenged boundaries between what is considered pornography and contemporary art, and ultimately raised the dialogue of elevating a sexual act to that of a religious experience, and not a base pornographic act. Koons explained that it was not pornography that motivated him, but love, reunion and spiritual matters, whose kitsch and exalted emotions eclipsed the x-rated components of MADE IN HEAVEN. Koons stated that "I went through moral conflict. I could not sleep for a long time in preparation of my new work. I had to go to the depths of my own sexuality, my own morality, to be able to remove fear, guilt and shame from myself. All of this has been removed for the viewer. So when the viewer sees it, they are in the realm of the Sacred Heart of Jesus"( Jeff Koons quoted in A. Muthesius, ed., JEFF KOONS, COLOGNE, 1992, p. 136). Koons further explains, "Ilona and I were born for each other. She's a media woman. I'm a media man. We are the contemporary Adam and Eve. I believe totally that I'm in the realm of the spiritual, now, with Ilona. Through our union, we're aligned once again with nature. I mean we've become God. That's the
bottom line - we've become God" (J. Koons, THE JEFF KOONS HANDBOOK, NEW YORK, 1992, p. 140).
Robert Rosenblum further elaborates on Koons MADE IN HEAVEN series, "Instead of a porno show, the effect was like that of Japanese erotic prints, where the degree of stylization is so exaggerated that the sexual acrobatics as such are quickly submerged in an all-engulfing artifice. Here, the cinemascopic baroque universe that would fuse heaven and earth, flesh and spirit exorcised the lurid parts, which, at least as far as La Cicciolina was concerned, were so thoroughly depilated, cherubically pink, and spotlessly clean, that they almost would have been at home in an exhibition of 19th-century academic nudes, at once wanton and idealized, by the likes of Bouguereau or Cabanel. And in 'Made in Heaven' the heat of the torrid images was also cooled and sweetened by the inclusion, as in a wrap-around installation, of other kinds of Koonsiana, from soulfully chaste neo-baroque marble busts of the artist and his blessed wife to the more familiar repertory of dogs, birds, cats and flowers; all works that invoked such wholesome, Disney World family values that their very presence at his exhibition provided a fortress against any thoughts of obscenity" (J. Koons, ibid., pp. 25-26).
Auction Location:
United States
Previewing Details:
Saturday November 1, 2003 10am to 5pm
Sunday November 2, 2003 1Pm to 5pm
Monday November 3, 2003 10am to 5pm
Tuesday November 4, 2003 10am to 5pm
Wednesday November 5, 2003 10am to 5pm
Thursday November 6, 2003 10am to 5pm
Friday November 7, 2003 10am to 5pm
Saturday November 8, 2003 10am to 5pm
Sunday November 9, 2003 1Pm to 5pm
Monday November 10, 2003 10am to 5pm
Tuesday November 11, 2003 10am to 5pm
Wednesday November 12, 2003 10am to 5pm
Additional Fees:
Shipping Details:
No Info Available
Payment Details:
No Info Available
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