Installed in 1997 on the plaza in front of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao, Jeff Koons's 'Puppy' is a 12-metre-tall West Highland terrier sculpture clad in more than 40,000 live flowering plants replanted twice a year. Originally conceived in 1992 for the grounds of Schloss Arolsen in Germany, the work has become the adopted mascot of Bilbao and the museum's most photographed single feature. Behind its saccharine surface Koons plays on kitsch, topiary gardening, and the contested boundary between sentimental public entertainment and the 'serious' sculpture such a site traditionally required.

Exhibition Venue

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Bilbao, Spain