On Monday the 30th of March, myself, Véronique and a handful of parents accompanied our young contemporary art critics to the Pompidou Center, to take a look at Jeff Koons’ much anticipated exhibition.

The children were of course, very familiar with Jeff Koons’ work and keen to see it ‘for real’. Some had already decided which their favourite and least favourite pieces were before we left, but many changed their minds once they had seen the size of the sculptures !

A little bemused by the vaccuum cleaners in the first part of the exhibition, we moved on to see the basketballs floating apparently impossibly in clear liquid. We would soon be approaching the exhibits we were more interested in : the sculptures.

The end-of-year show this year is Michael Jackson, so the children were falling-over-themselves to see Jeff Koons’ representation of Michael and Bubbles(which I hate !). We spent quite a while admiring it before moving on to look at the giant balloon dog, amongst other pieces.

The children had various opinions, but the consensus seemed to be that they preferred Niki de Saint Phalle to Koons, because Jeff Koons didn’t create his ‘art’ himself. Jeff, if you are reading this, we can tell you, however ,that Popeye, The kitten in the sock and the ballerina are a resounding success with 4-6 year-olds !
After the exhibition we were excited to visit the fountain next to the Pompidou Centre where ‘Niki’ and Jean Tanguely’s works are in permanent residence! The children particularly loved the Bird of Paradise, the Mermaid and the Heart.