Looks like Jeff Koons is feeling festive. His show of new work at Paris gallerist Almine Rech’s new space is filled with adorably Christmassy blue baubles. He’s plonked a bunch of them in front of some painfully faithful recreations of Old Master paintings, and even set one balancing on top of a Duchamp-esque wine rack.
It seems silly at first, even a little stupid, but it’s actually a pretty good trick. The baubles act as mirrored balls, reflecting the viewer back at themselves. There you are, stroking your chin and looking all clever while considering a Titian, gazing at a Poussin or perving over Boucher’s reclining nude. It makes you the most important part of the artwork, a necessary player. It makes you consider how you’re looking at the art, and why. Yes, it’s over the top and gaudy and ludicrous – of course it is, it’s Koons – but there’s more to him than surface nonsense.
The show is completed by two big, intensely shiny ballerina sculptures. They’re striking, and use the same reflective trick as the baubles do, but on a bigger scale.
None of these are great Koons works, but they are good, semi-clean, holiday fun. Merry Koonsmas.
@eddyfrankel