Jeff Koons created Puppy, the large flower-covered dog sculpture displayed outside the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Koons designed Puppy in 1992. The sculpture depicts a West Highland white terrier and uses a steel structural frame, an internal irrigation system, soil, and living plants. Its flowers change with the seasons, making the work both a sculpture and a continuously changing horticultural display.
Puppy was installed outside the Bilbao museum in 1997, the year the museum opened. Its friendly scale and recognizable dog shape contrast with the museum’s abstract architecture and have made it one of Bilbao’s most photographed public artworks.
Puppy is sometimes confused with Maman, the giant spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, which has also been displayed at Bilbao. They are different works by different artists: Koons made the flower-covered dog, while Bourgeois made the spider.