Stainless steel
40 x 27 x 14 inches
COURTESY OF THE NANCY A. NASHER AND DAVID J. HAEMISEGGER COLLECTION
Jonathan Monk is known for his sharp, humorous reimagining of major works from Modern, Conceptual, and Minimal art. His approach moves deliberately between tribute and playful critique. Since embracing appropriation as the core of his practice in 1987, Monk has consistently questioned how the art world controls the circulation and value of contemporary art, while challenging the exhibition industry’s norms and long-held ideas about originality and authorship.
This sculpture belongs to Monk’s stainless-steel series Deflated Sculpture, 2009, which reinterprets Jeff Koons’ iconic sculpture, Rabbit, 1986, in various stages of collapse. By “deflating” it, Monk turns Koons’ iconic form into something vulnerable, humorous, and self-aware. Monk is also using wordplay to critique the way art is commodified and the way value is assigned in the global art market. If Monk's sculpture is “deflated,” is the Koons version “inflated”? Letting the air out isn’t an act of destruction—it is a way of giving the original concept a fresh and unexpected life.
