Puppy: The guard dog at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Puppy

Puppy is undoubtedly one of the most photographed sculptures in Spain and one of the most original I have seen because it is a living sculpture.

This large, colourful sculpture, with a steel skeleton but a skin made of different types of flowers, poses imposing, friendly and, above all, colourful every day at the entrance to the great Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

This 12.4 metre high, 60 tonne sculpture is the largest dog in the world, as the sculpture represents a west highland white terrier puppy.

It also holds the award for most photographed dog in the world, because none of the more than one million visitors a year to the Guggenheim Museum leave without taking a picture of Puppy.

His beginnings

Puppy's story began in 1992, five years before arriving in Bilbao, in the mind and hands of its creator, the sculptor Jeff Koons.

The origin of the imposing floral puppy can be traced back to a temporary work by Koons, which he exhibited in the courtyard of the Waldeck castle in the German town of Bad Arolsen, near Kassel. It was the first version of Puppy with a wooden skeleton and a height of 11 metres.

After the success of the first version of Puppy, Koons discarded wood and opted for stainless steel as the basis for its skeleton, achieving a more solid structure. In addition, a frame with a box structure was incorporated, to which a metal mesh was added, which in turn is covered with a green geotextile mesh in which each of the 38,000 flowers that dress it are inserted.

A journey from Sydney to Bilbao

Puppy's world premiere took place far from Bilbao, specifically in Sydney, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in 1997.

Months later, the Salomon Guggenheim Foundation bought it to incorporate it into its collection and since 1997 it has been present in the square in front of the Guggenheim Museum as a good watchdog of this spectacular museum.