Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons Arrive in Mexico City!

For the past four years, the Jumex Museum has been planning the combined exhibition of two of the most renowned names in art of the last couple of centuries: Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons. Named after a collection of essays written by Octavio Paz on the works of Duchamp, Naked Appearance: Desire and Object in the Works of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons was inaugurated on Sunday, May 19. It impressively brings together more than 80 indispensable works of both artists. For example, this includes the complete collection of Duchamp’s ready-mades, such as “Fountain” and “Bicycle Wheel”; Koons’ monumental dancer, rabbit, and, of course, shiny pink piece imitating a balloon dog. Our sister publication, local.mx, visited the exhibition and took a number of stunning images.

Why scatter works by Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons over three floors of a museum?

The exhibition’s guest curator, Massimiliano Gioni, did not presume to establish a direct relationship between the two artists or validate the work of Koons through Duchamp. In fact, the other day, Koons’s work “Rabbit” set the auction record for the most expensive work by any living artist. The museum route consists of a series of pieces placed side by side in a dialogue. Both Duchamp and Koons work from a place of fascination with everyday objects; both shared the reverence for eroticism (the only “ism” in which Marcel Duchamp believed) and also reflections on notions such as desire and taste.

Over the three floors of the Jumex, Naked Appearance unfolds works from more than 30 collections from Europe and America. One can be transported back to the pages of Art History textbooks upon encountering the wheel of a bicycle mounted on a stool, the snow shovel suspended in the air, or the inverted urinal. Also, there is even the glass ampoule holding 50 cubic digits of Parisian air. And then, there’s Jeff Koons: monumental, colorful, and irreverent.

Both artists allude to eroticism and how we use metaphors to communicate our desires. This is to say that Naked Appearance is a kind of history of the objects that surround us, dating from the last century to the present day. It is an exploration of objects to adore and admire.

The exhibition will be available at the Jumex Museum until September 29.

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The Top 5 Museums in Polanco, Mexico City
Six Art, Music, and Cultural Festivals in Mexico in 2019
The Guide to Cultural Activities in Oaxaca City