Beschreibung:

Jeff Koons Caterpillar Ladder 2003 Polychromed aluminum, aluminum and plastic. 84 x 44 x 76 in. (213.4 x 111.8 x 193 cm). This work is from an edition of three plus one artist’s proof.
Provenance Sonnabend Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, Sonnabend Gallery, Popeye, November 8 - December 31, 2003; New York, Lever House Art Collection, Jeff Koons December 24, 2004 - April 30, 2006 (another example exhibited); Bregenz, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Re-Object: Marcel Duchamp Damien Hirst Jeff Koons Gerhard Merz February 18 - May 13, 2007 (another example exhibited); Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeff Koons May 31 - September 21, 2008 (another example exhibited); London, Serpentine Gallery, Jeff Koons Popeye Series, July 2 - September 13, 2009 (another example exhibited) Literature J. Saltz, “Breathing Lessons,” Artnet Magazine (originally published in the Village Voice), December 16, 2003 (illustrated); U. Grosenick, ed., ART NOW Vol 2, Cologne, 2005, p. 239, no. 5 (illustrated); G. Politi, “Jeff Koons: an Interview by the Readers of Flash Art, “ Flash Art, no. 240, January - February 2005, p. 89 (illustrated); A. Lindemann, Collecting Contemporary, Cologne, 2006, p. 164; E. Schneider, ed., Re-Object: Marcel Duchamp Damien Hirst Jeff Koons Gerhard Merz Germany, 2007, pp. 6 and 126 (illustrated); F. Bonami, ed., “Popeye,” Jeff Koons New Haven, 2008, p. 100 (illustrated); H. W. Holzwarth, ed., Jeff Koons Cologne 2008, pp. 549 and 551 (illustrated); R. Morata, “Jeff Koons: un Artiste Barock,” Point de Vue, August 28 - September 3, 2008, p. 59 (illustrated); G. Bader, “Jeff Koons: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,” Artforum, September 2008, pp. 450-451 (illustrated); “Jeff Koons: Mickey-l’Ange Contemporain,” Paris Match, September 3, 2008, p. 81 (illustrated); J. Jones, “Not just the king of kitsch,” The Guardian, London, June 30, 2009, p. 5, (illustrated); M. Glover, “King of comic relief,” The Independent, London, July 1, 2009, p. 14 illustrated); B. Lewis, “Popeye the Eye-Popper,” Evening Standard, London, July 2, 2009, p. 34, (illustrated); C. Vogel, “Koons and a Sailor Man in London,” The NewYork Times, July 2, 2009 (illustrated on website); R. Dorment, “Jeff Koons: Popeye Series at the Serpentine Gallery, review,” The Daily Telegraph, July 6, 2009 (illustrated on website); C. Maume, “Jeff Koons’s Popeye series is fabulously exuberant. Rothko it ain’t,” The Independent, July 14, 2009 (illustrated on website); P. Levy, “The Bearable Lightness of Being Jeff Koons ” The Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2009 (illustrated on website); H.W. Holzwarth, ed., Jeff Koons Cologne, 2009, pp. 535 and 537 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay I think of the inflatables as anthropomorphic, we are ourselves inflatables, we take a breath, we expand, we contract, our last breath in life, our deflation. By contrast these objects have a permanence to them, they maintain a non-divisible sense of life, of continuity. Maybe it’s also almost like learning to swim, that extraordinary experience almost like birthing, the independence of when you can finally swim yourself. (Jeff Koons quoted in S. Murg, “Jeff Koons: ‘We Are Ourselves Inflatables,’ mediabistro/UnBeige, August 6, 2009) The viewer feels their own possibilities and whatever their interests are, they feel more excited to meet their own potential, that’s what I hope the viewer experiences. (Jeff Koons quoted in S. Murg, “Jeff Koons: ‘We Are Ourselves Inflatables,’ mediabistro/UnBeige, August 6, 2009) Big, bold, bright and stuck in a ladder? How odd, how charming and how characteristically Koons. Jeff Koons presents us with as peculiar a paradox as we could imagine, never ceasing to amaze with his larger-than-life style and clever eye. At first glance, we are not precisely sure what to make of Caterpillar Ladder—an adorable sculpture that triggers memories of childhood or an oddly jarring contradiction? At second glance, we are still puzzled yet undeniably charmed. Caterpillar Ladder is by far one of the most recognizable pieces from Koons’ Popeye series. He began this series in 2002 and with it revisits one of his favorite subjects: the inflatable. He first began working