Jeff Koons and Balloon Monkey (Blue)

As the monumental work, previously on show at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, is offered at Christie’s in London, we look at how the artist’s ‘inflatables’ have developed to become some of the most highly prized artworks in the world

Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Balloon Monkey (Blue), 2006-13. Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating. This work is one of five unique versions (Red, Yellow, Blue, Magenta, Orange). 150 x 126 x 235 in (381 x 320 x 596.9 cm). Sold for £7,555,000 on 9 October 2024 at Christie’s in London

‘We are inflatables,’ Jeff Koons declared to the curator Norman Rosenthal in 2014. ‘As human beings, we can take a deep breath. That’s a symbol of optimism and potential, and if we exhale, we deflate ourselves.’

Arguably, no other series of artworks created during the past half century has caused as much debate — or broken as many records — as Koons’s ‘inflatable’ sculptures, which are both the genesis and pinnacle of his career.

On 9 October 2024, Koons’s monumental Balloon Monkey (Blue) (2006-13) will be offered in Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale. One of five unique versions of a work considered a touchstone of his career, it was the anchor of his 2021-22 exhibition Shine at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.

Koons’s early inflatable experiments

In 1977, having earned a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Koons moved to New York City. Keen to attract attention at his new job — working the membership desk at the city’s Museum of Modern Art — he dyed his hair red, grew a pencil moustache and, most significantly, tied an inflatable flower around his neck.

The flower was one of many inflatables he bought from the local dollar store, along with elephants, pandas and rabbits. Back in his East Village apartment, he began arranging them between porcelain trinkets, then mirrors, experimenting with Marcel Duchamp’s theory of ‘readymades’.

Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Inflatable Flower (Tall Orange) Corner, 1979. Vinyl and mirrors, in four parts. Flower: 17 x 7 x 7 in (43.2 x 17.8 x 17.8 cm). Overall: 19¼ x 17 x 17 in (48.9 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm). Sold for $212,500 on 16 November 2018 at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © Jeff Koons

Looking back at the creation of what he now considers his first serious works, such as Inflatable Flower (Tall Orange) Corner (1979), Koons recalled feeling euphoric: ‘I had to go out and drink a couple of beers to come down from the heightened experience. It felt so supercharged, and I felt my work had moved onto another level.’

The ‘Equilibrium’ and ‘Statuary’ series

In 1979, Koons began to make sculptures out of fluorescent light tubes and vacuum cleaners, financed by his new day job as a commodities broker.

But in 1985, still fascinated by the idea of inflation, he returned to the theme for his ‘Equilibrium’ series, producing cast-bronzes including Aqualung and Lifeboat, as well as the landmark One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J Silver Series). The latter, which consists of a gravity-defying basketball suspended in a water-filled tank, was described by the curator Jeffrey Deitch as ‘one of the most influential works in the history of contemporary art’. Number one from an edition of two sold at Christie’s in 2016 for $15,285,000.

In 1986, Koons participated in a group show at the prestigious Sonnabend Gallery in New York. There he launched his ‘Statuary’ series of stainless-steel works with a metre-high inflatable bunny called Rabbit.

Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Rabbit, 1986. Stainless steel. This work is number two from an edition of three plus one artist’s proof. 41 x 19 x 12 in (104.1 x 48.3 x 30.5 cm). Sold for $91,075,000 on 15 May 2019 at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © Jeff Koons

The work was singled out by New York Times art critic Roberta Smith as ‘a dazzling update on Brancusi’s perfect forms’. Koons said of it at the time, ‘I’m making some of the greatest art being made now. It’ll take the art world 10 years to get around to it.’ Twenty-one years later, in 2007, a 16-metre-high version of Rabbit soared above Manhattan in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In 2019, the last of the three editions in private hands sold at Christie’s for $91,075,000. The amount obliterated Koons’s previous top price and established a new world record for a work of art by a living artist — for the third time in his career.

The ‘Celebration’ and ‘Popeye’ series

In 1993, following five years of creating work from porcelain, wood, glass and flowering plants, Koons conceived his biggest challenge to date: his ‘Celebration’ series. This would include colossal balloon animals, party hats and Play-Doh cast in aluminium and painted in bright colours.

Inspired by the cycle of life, the ‘Celebration’ series highlights important milestones such as birthdays, for instance in the paintings Cake and Party Hat, the latter of which also appears as a stainless-steel sculpture.

Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Balloon Monkey (Blue), 2006-13. Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating. This work is one of five unique versions (Red, Yellow, Blue, Magenta, Orange). 150 x 126 x 235 in (381 x 320 x 596.9 cm). Sold for £7,555,000 on 9 October 2024 at Christie’s in London

The works were supposed to go on show at the Guggenheim in New York in 1996, but the exhibition was postponed four times, then finally cancelled after production was beset by technical problems. Substantial feats of engineering, the sculptures could each weigh several tons and take Koons’s team of more than 100 assistants — including balloon modellers, scanners and fabricators — more than a decade to finish.

‘I never want to lose the trust of the viewer,’ he said of his exacting standards, admitting to spending 18 months perfecting the neck of one balloon sculpture.

Over the following decades, Koons continued to evolve the ‘Celebration’ series. Balloon Swan (2004-11), Balloon Rabbit (2005-10) and Balloon Monkey (2006-13), ranging from nearly three to over five metres tall, were each produced in five unique versions, differentiated by their dazzling colours.

Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Balloon Dog (Orange), 1994-2000. Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating. This work is one of five unique versions (Blue, Magenta, Orange, Red, Yellow). 121 x 143 x 45 in (307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm). Sold for $58,405,000 on 12 November 2013 at Christie’s in New York. Installation view of Jeff Koons: Highlights of 25 Years at Mnuchin Gallery, 2004. Artwork: © Jeff Koons. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging

In 2013, Christie’s sold Balloon Dog (Orange) for $58,405,000 — when Koons once again set a record price for a living artist.

At the same time, between 2002 and 2013, Koons also developed his ‘Popeye’ series, casting inflatable pool and beach toys, including rubber rings and ride-on lobsters, in aluminium, then suspending them from chains or mounting them on bins and chairs.

The works — in part a homage to the Surrealist sculptures of Salvador Dalí — were first presented in 2003 at Sonnabend Gallery. In 2009, they travelled to the Serpentine in London for the artist’s first major solo show at a British institution.

Jeff Koons (b. 1955), Lobster, 2007-12. Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating. This work is number three from an edition of three plus an artist’s proof. 57⅞ x 18⅞ x 37 in (147 x 47.9 x 94 cm). Sold for $3,780,000 on 10 May 2022 at Christie’s in New York. Artwork: © Jeff Koons

‘When these inflatables are placed on stage, they continue to radiate that optimism of the inflated self,’ Koons said. ‘When you take a deep breath, it’s a symbol of life and optimism, and when you take your last breath, that last exhale is a symbol of death. If you see an inflatable deflated, it’s a symbol of death. These are the opposite.’

The ‘Hulk Elvis’ and ‘Antiquity’ series

Between 2004 and 2021, Koons continued to ‘inflate’ icons of popular culture, for instance in his ‘Hulk Elvis’ series, which presents life-size inflatables of the green superhero reimagined in polychromed bronze and accessorised with a tuba, a rock or a wheelbarrow.

As part of his ‘Antiquity’ series, Koons took the most ancient known works of art, including the 25,000-year-old Venus of Lespugue and the 40,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels, and reinvented them as huge balloon models.

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Inflatables take over the world

Since the turn of the millennium, Koons’s inflatables have toured the Helsinki City Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Fondation Beyeler in Basel, the Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, the Ashmolean in Oxford, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — among other global institutions. As some of the most widely exhibited artworks of the past three decades, they have their place firmly cemented in the public consciousness.

Balloon Monkey (Blue) has been installed in St James’s Square, adjacent to Christie’s headquarters in London, until 9 October 2024

The 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale is on view at Christie’s in London until 9 October 2024. Explore Christie’s 20th/21st Century autumn auction season in London and Paris, until 22 October

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