fThis evening was nothing for the inner skeptic in the art viewer. Or, on the contrary, grist to his culturally pessimistic mill. When you look at it in the light of day, it couldn’t have been any other way. After all, Jeff Koons, a veritable superstar of the international art scene, was announced. He was supposed to provide information about his work, the somewhat trendy “Apollo Kithara”, and about his view of the “machine room of the gods”, the sensational exhibition in the Liebieghaus, which aims to make the history of art and science of the past 5000 years convincing to run in parallel.
No wonder, then, that around 400, maybe 500 people crowded the completely sold-out Metzler Hall of the Städel Museum like a pop star. After the talk, they were just as patient in queuing for a quickly thrown “Balloon Flower” with the artist’s signature in a catalogue, on the admission ticket or in the museum guide, asking for one last photo of Koons or, even better, a selfie with them him. So far, so predictable. Only art did not have an easy time of it.
