![]() Its curving, sloping surfaces reflect the viewer, yes, but also reflect itself. These are made all the more dramatic by the mercury-like perfection of the bulk of the surface which they disrupt and emphasize. Be it in the corrugations that run up the bending ears, the seams that run down the body, the trails of sheet metal that sprout from the bottom of the carrot or the letters around the nozzle on the reverse, there is an incredible range of textures at play. The dynamism of Rabbit is reinforced by the fact that, on closer inspection, this sculpture has been rendered with an incredibly meticulous attention to detail. It hints at penetration, at bursting the balloon, and at that most Koonsian of subjects: sex. ![]() Adding a dynamism to the composition, the tentatively-hovering carrot, perching at the edge of the spherical head also ensures that there is a tension to the work. They nonetheless introduce complex plays of form, with the narrow carrot serving as a counterpoint to the rounded torso and face. The steel surface of the titular bunny initially appears smooth and balloon-like, the forms reduced to some abstract, Platonic ideal. Looking at Rabbit, the precision for which Koons has since become so renowned is there in all its seductive glory. Thus, the present example is the only one left in private hands, and while other examples have been exhibited extensively, this example of Rabbit has not been exhibited in public since the 1988 group show, Schlaf der Vernunft, or The Sleep of Reason, at the Museum Fredericianum in Kassel. In addition to this example, one is now in The Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles, another in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and a third in the National Museum of Qatar. The sculpture was cast in 1986 in an edition of three, plus an artist’s proof. For an artist such as Koons, who is so focused on widening the sphere in which art operates and communicates, Rabbit is the ultimate case in point.ĭespite its endemic presence in our cultural fabric, Rabbit is also an exceedingly rare object. Few works of art of its generation can have the same instant recognizability: it has been on the cover of numerous books, exhibition catalogues and magazines a monumental blow-up version even featured in the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Its lack of facial features renders it wholly inscrutable, but the forms themselves evoke fun and frivolity, an effect heightened by the crimps and dimples that have been translated into the stainless steel from which it has been made. It is crisp and cool in its appearance, yet taps into the visual language of childhood, of all that is pure and innocent. Rabbit melds a Minimalist sheen with a naïve sense of play. Standing at just over three feet tall, this shiny steel sculpture is at once inviting and imposing. The ability to keep rabbits would mean a fairly consistent source of meat for a struggling family.Since its creation in 1986, Jeff Koons’s Rabbit has become one of the most iconic works of 20th-century art. ![]() Apparently favoured by monks (as baby rabbits were not considered true meat, and could be eaten outside of Lent), rabbits' domestication was popularised, and breeds were experimented with to produce different colours of fur. Introduced to the UK from Spain by the Romans, rabbits – due to their fast breeding rate – became firmly established within the ecosystems of the nation, in managed warrens and wild ones dug by rabbit escapees. ![]() They chew the cud, yet do not have a divided hoof, but were later thought of as a symbol of the Diaspora. The ambiguous nature of the rabbit may be traced back to Judaism's attitude towards the mammals. The rabbits then escaped back into the wild, in a strange turn of events. ![]() The strays, having been forcibly removed from the wild (the Garden of Eden) and bred by humans (the descendants of Adam and Eve) to produce a somewhat unnatural array of contrasting fur colours. Robert Collinson (1832–after 1890) Paintings Collection ![]()
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