Balloon Animals I: Yellow Swan

Jeff Koons
Balloon Animals I: Yellow Swan
porcelain
2017

An original Jeff Koons porcelain sculpture.

2017

Metallic porcelain multiple.

Stamp signed, titled, dated and numbered on the underside.

An example from the edition of 999, numbered on the base. Published and produced by Bernardaud, Manufacture de Porcelaine, Limoges, France.

9 ½ x 6 ½ x 8 ½ inches

Jeff Koons is one of America’s most popular contemporary artists. His Neo-Pop aesthetic and wry appropriation of consumer objects express a reverence for popular culture. Balloon Animals I includes three multiples of cast porcelain coated with reflective finishes, and incorporates the vocabulary of his iconic Celebration sculptures. Koons’ artistry lies in his ability to illusionistically render a hard material into a malleable-looking inflated balloon, thereby playing with perceptions of the real and the imagined.

Koons has been interested in cultural subject matter with widespread appeal throughout his career. It is fitting that the rabbit, the monkey and the swan have been recurring motifs in his body of work as these subjects have captured various artist’s fascination throughout history, serving as allegorical figures for universal themes.