What connects a small prehistoric figurine carved from a mammoth tusk approximately 28,000 years ago with a monumental sculpture made of mirror‑polished stainless steel in the twenty‑first century?

The Museum of Cycladic Art presents, from March 20 until 31 August, the exhibition “Jeff Koons: ‘Venus’ Lespugue”, a unique curatorial project that brings Paleolithic art into dialogue with contemporary art.Exploring the significance of the Venus figure from the Paleolithic period to the present daythe Museum presents Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange) (2013-2019) of the international acclaimed artist Jeff Koons, loaned from the Homem Sonnabend Collection of Antonio Homem Sonnabend and Phokion Potamianos Homem, marking the first public display of the artwork, in dialogue with ten Paleolithic “Venus” figurines, through certified copies of the immovable originals housed in major European museums. The exhibition explores the female form from the Paleolithic era to contemporary art, proposing a dialogue that spans more than 40,000 years of human creativity.

“Venus of Lespugue” (frontal view), 28,000 before the present
(certified copy)
Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, HA – 19030
© Museum of Cycladic Art
Photo: Paris Tavitian

As Jeff Koons notes:

“It’s a tremendous honor to exhibit the Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange) in the Museum of Cycladic Art and to have the work in conversation with the copies of prehistoric models of “Venuses” from throughout the Paleolithic time period. To experience the objects within the exhibition from the Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange), which stands at 102 inches, to the museum models that range in height from 4.7 centimetres to just under 15 centimetres, reveals a striking difference in scale and materials. There is an ongoing discussion about the use of these “Venuses” and their meaning, but their scale indicates they were objects that were carried. They would have been held in the hand, allowing someone to feel physically connected with the magic of fertility.”

Koons’ Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange) draws inspiration from the paleolithic “Venus of Lespugue”, a mammoth tusk ivory figurine that dates back approximately 28,000 years. Jeff Koons has been influenced by this figure since the late 1970s. In his series Antiquity, which he started in 2008, the artist’s interpretation of the “Venus of Lespugue” engages a variety of art historical reference points, from Botticelli and Titian to Duchamp and Brancusi, where the notions of beauty and form play a central role. Koons has transposed the fetishized original, renowned for its exaggerated curves, into a towering balloon sculpture of Giacometti-esque proportions.

“Venus of Lespugue” (back view), 28,000 before the present
(certified copy)
Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, HA – 19030
©Museum of Cycladic Art
Photo: Paris Tavitian

The exhibition does not suggest a linear history of art. Instead, it is organized as a dialogue of forms and ideas that transcends the boundaries of time, exploring the following questions:

How has the symbolic body evolved from the Paleolithic period to postmodernity? Is there a universal archetype of fertility and femininity that transcends epochs? How does material transformation (from mammoth ivory and limestone to mirror-finished stainless steel) alter or preserve the symbolic meaning?

A journey across Eurasia spanning 40,000 years

The exhibition narrative begins in deep prehistory.

Between approximately 42,000 and 20,000 years ago, Paleolithic communities across Eurasia – from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Europe and Central Asia – created small female figurines in ivory, limestone, and clay. Today known as Paleolithic “Venuses,” these objects represent some of the earliest surviving examples of sculptural representation in human history.

Except for “Venus of Lespugue” from theMuséum Νational d’Histoire Νaturelle in Paris, the exhibition brings together a constellation of nine such figures, revealing a shared visual vocabulary that appears across great geographical distances.

General view of the exhibition Jeff Koons: ‘Venus’ Lespugue 
© Museum of Cycladic Art
Photo: Paris Tavitian

For these “Venuses”, the Museum collaborated with the following institutions: Moravskézemské museum (Moravian Museum), Brno, Czech Republic; Muséed’Archéologienationale, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France; Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto (MArTA), Italy; Museo delle Civiltà, Rome, Italy; Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France; and Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria.

The journey begins with the “Venus of Lespugue”, discovered in the Rideaux Cave in southern France and carved from mammoth ivory. Its exaggerated abdomen, pronounced hips, and prominent breasts embody a formal language emphasizing fertility, corporeality, and the generative force of the body.

Nearby appear the “Venuses of Grimaldi”, discovered in the Balzi Rossi caves on the Franco-Italian border, which offer a more elongated interpretation of the female form.

From Italy also comes the “Venus of Savignano”, a striking stone sculpture whose abstraction lends it a powerful sculptural presence, while Central Europe is represented by the “Venus of Dolní Věstonice”, among the earliest known ceramic sculptures in human history.

“Venuses of Parabita I-II”, 22,000-20,000 before the present
(certified copies)
National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MArTA), 139802, 139803
© Museum of Cycladic Art
Photo: Paris Tavitian                                                                                                                                                

The journey continues with the celebrated “Venus of Willendorf” from Austria – one of the most recognizable icons of prehistoric art – and concludes with the two “Venuses of Parabita” from southern Italy.

Despite the distances separating their places of discovery, these figurines share notable characteristics: small scale, pronounced emphasis on reproductive features, and a striking degree of abstraction in the rendering of the face and limbs.

As the curators and Academic Directors of the Museum of Cycladic Art Dr. Panagiotis P. Iossif and Dr. Ioannis D. Fappas note:

“The most striking feature of these ‘Venuses’ lies in their formal exaggeration: bulbous abdomens, pronounced hips, full breasts, and often diminished or entirely absent facial features and limbs. The body becomes the message; its form, the vessel of meaning”.

General view of the exhibition Jeff Koons: ‘Venus’ Lespugue
© Museum of Cycladic Art
Photo: Paris Tavitian

Jeff Koons and the contemporary reinterpretation of Venus

Ιn the exhibition, “Venus” figurines represent one of humanity’s earliest aesthetic codes. At the end of this journey into the prehistoric world, the work of Jeff Koons appears. Koons’ “Venus” revisits this prehistoric visual language through a radically different medium and context: the industrial, hyper-material world of the 21st century.

Jeff Koons
Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange), 2013-2019
Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating
105 1/16 x 48 13/16 x 41 3/16 inches
266.9 x 124.1 x 104.7 cm
One of five unique versions
Homem Sonnabend Collection
Jeff Koons
Photo: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

Through the reflective surface of Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange), visitors are invited to explore how material transformation alters or preserves symbolic meaning, and how contemporary art might help us reconnect to ancient aspects of human experience. Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange)translates the small Paleolithic figure into a monumental sculptural presence made of reflective stainless-steel. Its polished surface mirrors the surrounding space and the viewer, turning the act of seeing into an active participatory experience.

Jeff Koons
Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange), 2013-2019
Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating
105 1/16 x 48 13/16 x 41 3/16 inches
266.9 x 124.1 x 104.7 cm
One of five unique versions
Homem Sonnabend Collection
Jeff Koons
Photo: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

The exhibition also includes original sketches by Jeff Koons for the creation of the Balloon Venus Lespugueseries, as well as a short video produced by the Museum of Cycladic Art in which the artist discusses his work.

The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly catalogue featuring essays by Jeff Koons and leading international researchers on Paleolithic figurines and their enduring relevance in the history of art.

In addition to the guided tours offered as part of the exhibition, monthly Guided Talks will be held, each time with a special guest, providing an opportunity to delve deeper into the questions raised by the exhibition.

About Jeff Koons

One of the most recognizable of contemporary artists, Jeff Koons (b. 1955, York, Pennsylvania) is known for challenging the boundaries of art. He transforms everyday images and objects into works that engage the viewer in a dialogue between the modern era and the past.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1980, his work has been displayed in museums and cultural institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Tate Gallery (London), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and Guggenheim Bilbao (Bilbao).

Jeff Koons in front of his work Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange) at the Museum of Cycladic Art
Photo: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

Jeff Koons is widely known for his iconic sculptures Rabbit and Balloon Dog as well as his monumental floral works Puppy and Split-Rocker. Working with everyday objects, his work revolves around themes of self-acceptance and transcendence.

Koons lives and works in New York City.

Left to right: Phokion Potamianos (Board member and Treasurer of the Sonnabend Collection Foundation), Panagiotis Iossif (Academic Director, Museum of Cycladic Art), Sandra Marinopoulou (President and CEO, Museum of Cycladic Art), Jeff Koons, Aphrodite Gonou (Contemporary Art Program Advisor, Museum of Cycladic Art), Titina Patera (Vice President B’, Museum of Cycladic Art), Ιοannis Fappas (Academic Director, Museum of Cycladic Art)Photo: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

About the Homem Sonnabend Collection

The Homem Sonnabend Collection constitutes the private holdings of Antonio Homem Sonnabend and Phokion Potamianos Homem. The collection embraces works of the Renaissance in dialogue with significant examples of African and Oceanic art, and early 20th century decorative arts, while also foregrounding seminal figures of postwar and contemporary practice—from Pop Art to Arte Povera—as well as works dating from the 1980s and 1990s. Encompassing a wide range of media, including photography, sculpture, and painting, the collection brings together works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Schifano, Lucio Fontana, Jannis Kounellis, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Jeff Koons, among others.

www.sonnabendcollectionfoundation.org
www.sonnabendmantova.it

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