Jeff Koons and Versailles-Made in Heaven

Perhaps Sofia Coppola said it best with her film Marie-Antoinette. In that film she used contemporary pop references to show that during the time of the teen princess from Austria, Pop was all the rage and in essence Versailles was the hub of Pop. People who go to Versailles thinking it the height of greatness, I think somehow only get half the picture. In it's conception the Chateau de Versailles was to be the Pleasure Dome, the Shangri-La. The manifestation of the best of the best and at the same time, the height of artificiality. It glorified the fake and frivolous while reminding everyone Louis XIV, the King of France, was the gateway to the Kingdom of Heaven. I will admit that I love seeing all the gold and the marble (especially the faux marble) and the rich fabrics and exotic woodwork. At the same time, for me, the gardens are truly sublime and speak more of the intellect of the Sun King than any gilt work can convey. Where the chateau is a feast for the eyes, the gardens are for the mind. They are reason. This brings me to Jeff Koons. One of the most controversial artists of my generation, he has seen much and exhibited everywhere, but no where more appropriate than Versailles. Koons is Pop. He always has been. From vacuums in Plexiglas cases, to balloon animals of aluminum, Koons has had his finger on the banal and the magnificent combined. He can take something so familiar and not only make you notice, ala Warhol, but he can actually make you feel. Seeing his Puppy in New York's Rockefeller Center is a feast of emotion. An enormous West Highland Terrier illicit smiles and genuine laughter from viewers. It is incredible. Currently Koons' work is being shown at Versailles. The playfulness, the color and the underlying melancholy is all there, just like Versailles, because you see...even with the courts, the parties and the bodice ripping romps, the court at Versailles came to a tragic end. With all of Koons bright hopefulness, there is still a body of work that, at it's core, is about loss. You need only to learn of the artist's personal history to glimpse at what that loss is. The beauty of this joining of the two houses is that the works fit seamlessly in these opulent surroundings. The Pop kisses the gilt and the loss holds hands with a bright future. There was a time when Jeff Koons even seemed to embody the aire of The Sun King, untouchable and always radiating. He once had the reputation of arrogance, full of hubris and representing all that was wrong with contemporary art, but in a recent interview he seemed so humble and grateful, a man still wide eyed and hopeful. This exhibition at Versailles shows a man at the height of his powers, able to create all that he wants and more. Louis XIV was the same. He was a man able to create all that he wanted and more and like Koons, managed to make himself immortal by simply dreaming.

Jeff Koons at Versailles

9 September 2008- 4 January 2009