The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced that a towering floral sculpture by Jeff Koons will be installed outside its new $715 million building. The 37-foot tall sculpture, titled “Split-Rocker,” was donated to LACMA by collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick through their foundation. “Split-Rocker” features an enormous armature depicting two halves of children’s rocking toys, one a pony and the other a dinosaur.
The sculpture is filled with more than 50,000 flowering plants. “I couldn’t be more thrilled than to have a piece of floral work in Los Angeles where there’s such a wide variety of plants that can be used in its creation,” Koons said. “I hope people going back and forth on Wilshire Boulevard, and people visiting the museum, are able to enjoy and experience the change in the piece.”
First debuted at the Palais des Papes in Avignon in 2000, Koons’s sculpture has also appeared at the Château de Versailles, the Fondation Beyeler, Glenstone Museum, and Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Koons sculpture at LACMA
LACMA’s chief executive and director, Michael Govan, praised Koons for his unique ability to blend playfulness with deeper artistic meaning. He added that the sculpture’s floral aspect will thrive year-round in Southern California’s mild climate.
The Resnicks, longtime supporters of LACMA, will also fund the ongoing maintenance of “Split-Rocker.” Lynda Resnick, a former nearly quarter-century board member and now a life trustee, has had a significant influence on the museum, with the 2010 addition of the Resnick Pavilion named in honor of her and her husband. The new galleries, designed by architect Peter Zumthor, will house LACMA’s permanent collection and are set to open to the public next year. In the lead-up to its opening, a series of performances and preview events will allow museum members and the public to visit the building.
Other outdoor works coming to the plazas and gardens around the new building include new commissions by Shio Kusaka and Mariana Castillo Deball, along with the reinstallation of Alexander Calder’s three-part mobile “Three Quintains.”
As LACMA moves forward with these new additions, the inclusion of Koons’s “Split-Rocker” signifies a continued commitment to presenting significant, engaging works of contemporary art accessible to the public.
