This giant flower sculpture of a West Highland White Terrier puppy is part of the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Designed in 1992 by Jeff Koons – an American artist renowned for his “Neo-Pop art – for an art exhibition in Arolsen Castle, Germany, it was purchased by the Bilbao museum in 1997 (after a short stint in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney) and has graced its terrace ever since.
Standing 43 feet tall, the enormous blooming statue comprises a stainless steel frame, permeable geo-textile fabric, soil and carefully arranged, real flowering plants including Marigolds, Begonias, Impatiens, Petunias, and Lobelias! It is also reputed to have its own internal irrigation system!
Fun, whimsical and a wee bit kitschy.
The Urge To Wander 
Wow, that’s impressive! Hah
Yes, it was HUGE! Thank you for the visit and comment Mark 🙂
This statue certainly has a life of it’s own!
🙂
Ha ha…that it does 🙂
Wow! Very cool! Jeff Koons is a very strange but extremely interesting artist.
He is. Have you featured him on your blog Stephen?
Hi Madhu … not yet. That’s actually a great suggestion!
Just a wee bit kitchy? 😉
He he he, perhaps a little bit more Gilly 🙂
This statue speaks for itself. Great capture!! 🙂
That is so cool – great capture – thanks for sharing! Happy Thursday:)
A giant puppy. I sure hope they don’t have to walk him 😉 Though he has his own flowerbed to do it in.
A living statue. I’d hate to be the one picking the dead blooms off. 🙂
Absolutely fascinating Madhu.
Kitschy – but lovely anyway 🙂
what a wonderful sight madhu! now that is a good reason to visit bilbao …. i love what these large artworks do to our perception, changing things subtly to create fresh views of everything when you least expect it …
Wow, 43 ft and Real Flowers!! Do they change flowers, occasionally?
Fantastic- requires much seasonal maintenance too!
Wow, what a gardening project 🙂
Beautiful.
Cool statue. But having real flowering plants calls for a lot of management? Beauty always comes at a price, I guess! 🙂
I’m sure Puppy must be very happy in Bilbao, with all the attention he gets. In his short stay in Sydney he attracted millions (well over a million, I think – including me, lucky girl!) and looked like a kaleidoscopic dream, perched beside the Quay, with the Opera House and Bridge as backdrops.
I’m sure he has an irrigation system, though maintenance and seasonal replanting must still be a bit of a never ending project – come to think of it, what a job!
Stunning … amazing photoshot
How interesting, Madhu! I bet it needs a lot of upkeep too. I wonder if it needs weeding. 🙂
What fun!
Oh I love it!
Excellent captured – what a amazing large bouquet of flowers – really a creative sculpture of a west highland terrier puppy… 🙂
I think very kitschy, but still amazing. It required an awful lot of work…wow.
Beautiful!
Amazing statue … amazing building, but the rest .. I wasn’t impressed by – plus that people i Bilbo was very rude and ignorant. Great shot … wonder what happen to my photos – have to look around …
43 ft tall? wow that’s enormous! I like it.
So extraordinary and different!
The is truly a magnificent, amazing, beautiful work of Art…a living, unique work of Art.
WOW! This is beautiful.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Brilliant post Madhu , what I can say a total arrangement for this week theme ,
Thanks for sharing my friend 🙂
Very fun! I had no idea this was in Bilbao. Jeff Koons is pretty crazy.
This is interesting – especially how they could have configured the internal irrigation.
Beautiful!
It looks like a kitty cat. Impressive and beautiful.
wow!
It’s so very creative the way they do these beautiful floral sculptures. It brought to mind the Rose Bowl parade on New Year’s day in California. Here in Florida, Disney, puts on a Spring Flower dhow with many sculptures created with Spring flowers.
Nice post ….
Wow! Creative.
http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in
What a beautiful statue! I like how the flowers create it’s various colors. It must take a lot of work to maintain the statue.
This brought a smile to my face, Madhu, as I grew up with Westies. 🙂
So true yet so easy to forget, am I all right to repost this on my own
website in addition to some annotations?