Appearance Stripped Bare placed the work of Koons and Duchamp side by side, as in a hall of mirrors that reflects, distorts, and amplifies the artists’ similarities and differences within a complex “regime of coincidences,” to borrow one of Duchamp’s peculiar expressions.

At Museo Jumex in Mexico City, the recent exhibition Appearance Stripped Bare: Desire and The Object in the Work of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons, Even (from May 19 through September 29, 2019) attracted more than 440,240 visitors, making it the most well attended show in the museum’s history and one of the most visited exhibitions of contemporary art in Mexico. Appearance Stripped Bare was the first major exhibition to bring together the work of two legendary artists, Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons.

Curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Appearance Stripped Bare featured more than 80 works by Koons and Duchamp drawn from more than 30 collections in Europe and the Americas. 

The exhibition's public programs also drew record attendance throughout its run. Public talks and classes included the participation of Jeff Koons and Massimiliano Gioni, as well as Jeffrey Deitch, Graciela Speranza, Calvin Tomkins, Linda Yablonsky and many others.

Appearance Stripped Bare featured Duchamp’s complete set of 1964 readymades including among others, Bicycle Wheel (1913), Bottle Rack (1914) and Fountain (1917), and Koons’ Rabbit (1986), Balloon Dog (Magenta) (1994-2000), Moon (Light Blue) (1995-2000), Play-Doh (1994-2014), and Hulk (Friends) (2004-2012), along with selections from all of his renowned series such as The New, Banality, Made in Heaven, Celebration, Antiquity and more.

Published by Phaidon in collaboration with Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, a major catalogue edited by Massimiliano Gioni accompanied the exhibition, featuring contributions by Natalie Bell, Daniel Birnbaum, Thomas Girst, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Adina Kamien-Kazhdan, Helen Molesworth, María Minera, Francis Naumann, Laurent de Sutter, Calvin Tomkins, and Chris Wiley.

Coming up at Museo Jumex, James Turrell: Passages of Light will open on November 22, 2019.