
Bourgeois Bust- Jeff and Ilona
<p>Jeff Koons originally made this work for his now notorious <em>Made in Heaven</em> exhibition, in which he explored concepts of love by referencing his own marriage to Italian porn star Ilona Staller. He explains, “With <em>Bourgeois Bust</em>, I wanted . . . to be able to bring Ilona’s body and my body down together in a point so that it’s a heart—a symbol of love—and take the flesh and cut through it to form it that way without any sense of violence.” Here the couple appears within a traditional Baroquestyle portrait bust like those of 18th-century sculptor Antonio Canova (whose work you can see in the museum’s galleries of European painting and sculpture). <em>Bourgeois Bust</em> sets in tension the elegance of neoclassical sculpture and the irreverence of deploying its idealized terms in the postmodern era.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1991
- Medium
- Marble
- Dimensions
- 110.5 × 73.4 × 55.9 cm (43 1/2 × 29 × 22 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Jeff Koons
Artist

Sculpture
Learn about the work and career of artist Jeff Koons. Artworks, biography, exhibitions, news, museum exhibitions, press, and more.
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More by Jeff Koons
Caterpillar (with chains)
2002 · Polychromed aluminium and rubber coated steel
HIPPO (Green)
1999 · Glass, plastic and stainless steel
GOAT (Ice Blue)
1999 · Glass, plastic and stainless steel
MONKEY (Red-Orange)
1999 · Glass, plastic and stainless steel
DONKEY (Blue-Green)
1999 · Glass, plastic and stainless steel
ELEPHANT (Gold)
1999 · Glass, plastic and stainless steel
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Jeff Koons
- Year
- 1991
- Medium
- Marble
- Dimensions
- 110.5 × 73.4 × 55.9 cm (43 1/2 × 29 × 22 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1991-122211
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





