Celebration Series (1994 – 2000)
During the early 1990s, Koons started what we have come to know as his signature sculptural pieces, or among the most prominent of his sculptural pieces, the Celebration series. These were also inspired by children’s toys and blow-up balloon animals, especially with his son Ludwig still very young at that time.
As previously mentioned, the series included pieces like flowers, hearts, Easter eggs, and an assortment of balloon animals. There is a playfulness to the sculptures and an inherent play on other ideas like life and death and the loss of innocence from childhood that almost turns into this desire for material things and status.
Of these, there are different versions in a variety of colors, including the award-winning Cracked Egg (1994 to 2006), Diamond (1994 to 2005), Tulips (1995 to 2004), Balloon Flowers (1995 to 2000), Hanging Heart (1995 to 1998), and the well-known Balloon Dogs (1994 to 2000) among many others.
Mirrored bubble sculpture (detail) by Jeff Koons at the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin (Marline-Dietrich Platz)/Germany; Jeff Koons, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Critique: Is It Art?
Jeff Koons’ artwork has received considerable critique throughout the art communities and public; there are lovers and haters. One of the important questions that have bounced around most of Jeff Koons’ art is, “Is it art?”. The artist himself has been widely successful and received significant remuneration for several of his sculptures. He has also become quite popular among the masses.
For example, in 2013, Balloon Dog (Orange) was sold for $58.4 million at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening auction sale. It reportedly reached the record of the highest paid price for an artist that is still living. Koons’ Tulips were sold for $33.7 million at this same auction.
Many question the “craftsmanship” of Jeff Koons’ work and whether it falls within the realm of artwork and what subjects denote art. It also questions the idea of high art and low art, and his sculptures stand tall and quite abruptly in your face as if to say they are here to upend the traditional notions of what art should be and how it should look.
The word kitsch is of German origin used to describe objects that were of cheaper, more mass-produced, and “low brow” quality compared to the quality we would find from “high art”. It is often objected that they are popular only to the masses and not a more refined group of admirers. The idea of kitsch also has irony in its conveyance, and maybe that is what we find in Jeff Koons’ and so many other Pop Art and Contemporary artists of the times.
In fact, we see this type of play on “high” and “low” art when Balloon Dog (Magenta) was put on display in 2008 in the Château de Versailles in France, a stark contrast to the elaborate Baroque architecture and traditional modes of art from the past. Although the Baroque period was itself quite rich in ornament and gilded grandeur, maybe something the Baroque past and Balloon Dog present have in common?
It also points us to the inherent symbolism in Koons’ work if any at all. While we know the large Balloon Dog represents something that takes us back to a time of childhood and celebration, it may even symbolize a sense of innocence, however, with the way it has been constructed, and to the size, it could also symbolize the critique of mass culture and commoditization.
Koons has been reported to state he does not intend any other meanings in his works other than it just being what you see. He said, “A viewer might at first see irony in my work…but I see none at all. Irony causes too much critical contemplation”. For Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog, the artist is widely quoted in his explanation of why he possibly constructed these, saying:
Since the Celebration Series Koons have continued making his Pop-Cultural sculptures, for example, his Play-Doh (1994 to 2004), Hulk (Organ) (2004 to 2014), and the more recent Seated Ballerina (2017) as part of his Antiquity Series, among many others. The artist has worked with and inspired many other pop icons like singers Lady Gaga and Jay Z and other visual artists like the British Damien Hirst, from the Young British Artists group.
He has become like the embodiment of celebration among the celebrities but has done well for himself having been given achievements, for example, in 2008 the School of the Art Institute in Chicago awarded him with an honorary doctorate. In 2002 he became the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor and in 2007 the Officier.
He has also received numerous awards, namely, the BZ Cultural Award (2000) and Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (2001) in Berlin, the Wollaston Award (2008) from the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the U.S. State Department’s Medal of Arts (2013), the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2014), and during 2017 he was awarded for Outstanding Contribution to Visual Culture as part of the annual Honorary Membership Award through the Edgar Wind Society.
Formal Analysis: A Brief Compositional Overview
The Balloon Dog sculpture comes in five different colors, or versions, namely, Blue, Magenta, Orange, Red, and Yellow. It seemingly reflects the act of how we would be able to pick and choose our own colors if these were real balloon animals blown up by a clown at a birthday party. Below we take a closer look at Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sculptures and just what they are made of and what they possibly stand for if anything.
Each Jeff Koons Balloon Dog appears identical, sporting its bright colors. When we look at each one it resembles a perfect, albeit giant size, balloon dog. It stands on all four legs looking ahead as if it is going to playfully run or jump any minute.
If we look at the Balloon Dog, all of them, we almost want to touch it and feel its apparent softness, but if we move closer, we are not only met with its larger-than-life size and luminosity but we are met with a hard, reflective surface.
Each Jeff Koons Balloon Dog measures around 307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 centimeters (around 10 feet) and it weighs around a ton – as we previously mentioned, it is a life-size dog. All five dogs are made, or shall we say engineered, from mirror-polished stainless steel, which is then given a translucent coat of colored paint, namely, Blue, Magenta, Yellow, Red, and Orange. The mirror-polished surface on the stainless steel, including the paint, gives the Balloon Dog that balloon-like reflective surface.