Imagination Put on Bread and Water

Abstract

The Jeff Koons sculpture Ushering in Banality (1988)—featuring a large pig attended by two angel figures and a boy pushing from behind—was shown in the 1989 exhibition Horn of Plenty at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and subsequently purchased by the museum. The art critic Anna Tilroe reports on a talk show on Dutch TV, hosted by Sonja Barend, who was scandalized by this purchase that spent “tax money” on a work that she thought offended against “common sense”. While Tilroe expresses astonishment at the prices paid for works like this, and questions the workings on the commercial art market, she argues that the Koons sculpture follows the tradition that stretches back to Marcel Duchamp’s infamous urinal.

Keywords:

• Stedelijk Museum
• kitsch
• popular taste
• mass consumption
• Sonja Barend
• Marcel Duchamp
• Richard Gober
• Jeff Koons
• Roy Lichtenstein
• Julian Schnabel
• Frank Stella

Notes

1 Editor’s note: Sonja Barend was a talk show host on Dutch television, active from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Tilroe

Translated from Dutch by Wendy L. van Os-Thompson

Originally published as “De verbeelding op water en brood gezet,” in de Volkskrant (January 27, 1989).