Unfortunately, as seems to be the usual case, the museums did not offer audio in English (or in any language other than German). So, I still know very little about Koons. But his work seems very interesting as Koons seems to have a lot to say.
Our trip to the Liebieghaus, the sculpture museum, was particularly interesting. The building itself is amazing, on beautiful grounds.
The building was built in 1896 as a retirement home for a textile manufacturer. Eight years later, he died, and four years after his death, the city acquired the property to house a sculpture collection.
We had problems buying tickets - the guy didn't speak a lot of English and seemed to think we wanted free tickets. Then, after taking a picture (on my iPhone) of my sister-in-law and cousin-in-law in front of the building,
security surrounded us to inform me that I cannot take picture inside (duh - I had read the sign) and cannot take a picture at the outside cafe. The prohibition on taking pictures outside made little sense, but then we realized there was a Jeff Koons statue outside. I am still puzzled though as to how taking a picture of the statue would be worse than the outside elements are on the statue, but whatever...
Anyway, while we were inside trying to understand Koons' art (with hardly any information in English), interestingly placed amongst the museum's permanent collection, diligent security personnel carefully followed us. We are not sure why. Maybe they were concerned about the four pictures I took outside. Very strange.
Anyway, I hope to buy a book on Koons (who studied at the Art Institute in Chicago) so I can have a better understanding of what I saw. Regardless of my ignorance, the two exhibits were still very interesting.
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