In June 2020 the renowned New York gallery David Zwirner opened its virtual space Studio 243 with an intermediate exhibition dedicated to Jeff Koons’ Balloon Venus Lespugue. The last speci- men of a nucleus of works of prehistoric suggestion produced by the artist’s studio since 2008, the pneumatic sculpture inspired by Lespugue, and the other elements of the Palaeolithic series (composed of four typological specimens), results in particularly complex operation from a theoretical perspective. The present contribution aims to shed light on how the appropriation of the prehistoric Venus made by the American artist is carried out and on its consequences. Furthermore, it will be pointed out the schism existing between the inventive-executive phase and the exhibition of the completed work. Given this scenario, this paper investigation has two critical objectives. On the one hand, it will demonstrate how the authorial operation proposed by Koons be- comes a crucial testimony of a peculiar way of understanding the work of art, its gestation and its fruition in a neoliberal and late-capitalist system. A system populated not by artefacts, from the Latin manu factus, literally ‘made, executed by hand’, but by artefacts, namely objects made ‘with art’ and ‘artifice’. In this sense, it will be highlighted how this dimension of the artefact, reached through the formal escamotage of an alleged acheiropoieton icon, makes these arte- facts, originally carved to be touched, untouchable ‘commodity sculptures’. On the other hand, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how some of the main char- acteristics of the prehistoric artefact (the miniaturization process, its tactile experience, and its morphogenesis in the hand palm) possess a paradigmatic value not only within the prehistoric framework. Indeed, they unseal a fundamental paradigm to go back to the origins of making sculpture, not ontological but technical, opening a significant path for critical analysis.
Dall’iconografia alla morfogenesi: le Veneri di Jeff Koons in una prospettiva storico- artistica, 2022-12.
Dall’iconografia alla morfogenesi: le Veneri di Jeff Koons in una prospettiva storico- artistica
Valentina Bartalesi
2022-12-01
Abstract
In June 2020 the renowned New York gallery David Zwirner opened its virtual space Studio 243 with an intermediate exhibition dedicated to Jeff Koons’ Balloon Venus Lespugue. The last speci- men of a nucleus of works of prehistoric suggestion produced by the artist’s studio since 2008, the pneumatic sculpture inspired by Lespugue, and the other elements of the Palaeolithic series (composed of four typological specimens), results in particularly complex operation from a theoretical perspective. The present contribution aims to shed light on how the appropriation of the prehistoric Venus made by the American artist is carried out and on its consequences. Furthermore, it will be pointed out the schism existing between the inventive-executive phase and the exhibition of the completed work. Given this scenario, this paper investigation has two critical objectives. On the one hand, it will demonstrate how the authorial operation proposed by Koons be- comes a crucial testimony of a peculiar way of understanding the work of art, its gestation and its fruition in a neoliberal and late-capitalist system. A system populated not by artefacts, from the Latin manu factus, literally ‘made, executed by hand’, but by artefacts, namely objects made ‘with art’ and ‘artifice’. In this sense, it will be highlighted how this dimension of the artefact, reached through the formal escamotage of an alleged acheiropoieton icon, makes these arte- facts, originally carved to be touched, untouchable ‘commodity sculptures’. On the other hand, an attempt will be made to demonstrate how some of the main char- acteristics of the prehistoric artefact (the miniaturization process, its tactile experience, and its morphogenesis in the hand palm) possess a paradigmatic value not only within the prehistoric framework. Indeed, they unseal a fundamental paradigm to go back to the origins of making sculpture, not ontological but technical, opening a significant path for critical analysis.
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