Jeff Koons.Shine in Florence

The series of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary art at Palazzo Strozzi continues, this time it is the turn of the very famous Jeff Koons, who had already been in Florence in 2015 with the much discussed golden sculpture Pluto and Proserpina, displayed in front of Palazzo Vecchio.

Jeff Koons. Shine brings to Palazzo Strozzi more than 30 shiny and colorful artworks that investigate the Koonsian concept of shine. Koons was fascinated by reflective surfaces from the very first experiments, which included real mirrors and already contained in unripe form the typical elements of his art: mirrored surfaces, inflatables, toys and references to ancient art.
The works on display that most will fascinate visitors are certainly those of the Celebrations and of the more recent Popeye series, such as Sacred Heart (1994-2007), Baloon Dog (1994-2000), Dolphin (2002) or Hulk (2004-2018) ). Colorful and fun pieces, characterized by a strong ambiguity between reality and appearance.

Sacred Heart is a huge wrapped heart, balanced on its pointed end, only it's not wrapping paper we see, but mirror polished stainless steel. A very heavy sculpture that conveys an incredible sense of lightness, of joy, of festivity.

Likewise, Baloon Dog is a large-scale reproduction of a dog made out of balloons, one of those assembled by clowns at children's parties.

Even more amazing are perhaps Dolphin and Hulk. Both are assemblages of objects: on the one hand, ready-made objects, such as bass tubas and steel pots, on the other, created objects such as the faithful steel and bronze reproductions of inflatables.
What is surprising is the perfection of these reproductions, which appear so light and so detailed that you’d never doubt their veracity. When looking at these art pieces, the temptation to touch them is almost irresistible, the eye tells us that they are soft to the touch and filled with air, but this belief is immediately denied by the explanatory tags, on which we find out they are made of  polychrome aluminum and bronze.

Another work that has a similar effect is the very famous Rabbit (1986), purchased at an auction in 2019 at the record price of 91 million dollars. It is Koons' first work reproducing plastic inflatables with polished steel and as for the following works, the sensation when seeing it is precisely that of wanting to touch it to ascertain what material this “inflatable” silver rabbit is really made of.

In order to perfectly reproduce the folds of the plastic, Koons' works are scrutinized meticulously by the artist, only a few have his approval.

An example of this perfectionism is the Gazing Balls series, consisting of perfect reproductions of famous works of sculpture and painting containing shiny blue blown glass spheres. Koons examines the spheres one by one and approves only one out of three hundred.

Although they often reproduce everyday objects that the artist buys for a few dollars in junk shops, the actual quality of the resulting artworks is incredibly high.

The exhibition concludes with works from the Antiquity series which once again reaffirm Jeff Koons' interest in ancient art. These are two large sculptures in colored and mirror-polished steel (cover photo) that are inspired by small paleolithic fertility statuettes, once again transformed into balloon sculptures. Themes such as the fragility of life, sexuality, childhood and breath run through Koons' entire artistic production, and these works in particular contain all the above elements.

The American artist is convinced that art is not complete without the viewer. Each work is lucid and reflects the surrounding environment, including the viewer, incorporating it, distorting it and returning it to the source. The work comes to life when it is observed closely, and changes continuously according to the observer and the surrounding environment.
Once out of the museum, the visitors take away with them the possibility of this interaction with the artwork and therefore the artwork itself. Without one, the other does not exist.  After all, this is precisely the main purpose of Jeff Koons' work, to make art as inclusive and democratic as possible.