Puppy
Jeff Koons (born 1955) · 1992
A West Highland terrier the height of a four storey building sits at the museum door, made of tens of thousands of living flowers. Petunias, begonias, marigolds and busy lizzies grow in soil packed inside a stainless steel skeleton, fed by an internal irrigation system, so the dog is never quite the same colour two weeks running. In spring it is planted afresh and for a few days it looks bald and a little sad, then it blooms again. Children love it immediately; adults tend to pretend not to, and then take a photograph anyway.
Jeff Koons built the first Puppy in nineteen ninety two for a castle garden in Arolsen in Germany, working from a small ceramic ornament he enlarged with the help of computer modelling. The trick of the piece is scale. A sentimental figurine, the sort of thing sold in a gift shop, is blown up until it takes on the authority of a public monument, and the flowers add the earnest care of a municipal roundabout. Look at how carefully the breeds of plant are chosen so that the dog reads as a single silhouette from a distance and dissolves into a meadow when you stand underneath it.
The museum bought the work in nineteen ninety seven, just before opening, and what was meant as a temporary greeting became permanent because the people of Bilbao refused to let it go. Locals call it Puppy in English, treat it as the city mascot and dress it up for festivals. Days before the museum opened, Basque separatists disguised as gardeners tried to plant explosives inside the sculpture and a police officer was killed foiling the plot, a dark story behind the most cheerful object in town.
Did You Know? Bilbao residents joke that Puppy is the real museum and the building behind it is simply the dog's kennel.
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