Jeff Koons had kitsch enlarged and presented it as art in museums.
The last major purchase of a large wooden artwork by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam was already over 30 years ago (1988): ‘Ushering in Banality’ by Jeff Koons (1955).
The American artist did not conceive the representation. He also did not carve the sculpture himself. That was done by one Franz Wieser. The craftsman was allowed to put his name on the base of the enlarged kitsch sculpture.
It is an enormous pink pig of 1 meter height, accompanied by two cherubs and pushed forward by another child figure. Jeff Koons saw the cheap figurine, like so many that serve as interior decoration. He decided it fit perfectly into his oeuvre in which he provocatively addresses the relationship between art and kitsch. Why wouldn’t kitsch be beautiful? And had it enlarged.
Director Wim Beeren learned his lesson when he paid 250 thousand guilders (!) for this enlarged Biedermeier representation. His critics accused him of wasting money. How can you exhibit something so banal? The title didn’t help either: ‘Ushering in banality’. Not a word about the beautiful craftsmanship of the maker, the fine grooves of his chisel from which the wood material emerges through the pastel of the paint.
The sculpture did not generate demand for more modern wooden sculptures among the art-loving public. The art bible Janson’s, which holds Koons in high regard as an artist, also did not choose this wooden sculpture but an illustration of a porcelain Michael Jackson with a chimpanzee, based on a photo. Koons was not at all concerned with the material wood, but with an expression that was meant to show how the art market functions. How does art differ from popular culture and how is taste formed? Commerce, market, profit, those were the themes of ‘post-modernism’ in the eighties of the last century.
The Stedelijk has no reason to regret the purchase. On the internet, you can follow how the wooden pig traveled around the world, brightening up exhibitions as far as Mexico. It even ended up in a plexiglass case for protection.
And how did wood carver Franz Wieser fare? Nothing more can be found on the internet about the maker. The Stedelijk Museum’s page about him is also empty. The wood carver disappeared back into anonymity.
The Stedelijk on ‘Ushering in Banality’ by Jeff Koons
