Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons, born 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, lives and works in New York. Koons is considered one of the most influential contemporary artists. For four decades, he has explored the boundaries of artistic production, elevating everyday objects to the status of art by placing them in dialogue between historical reference and contemporary aesthetics. His works address central themes such as self-acceptance and transcendence.
With iconic sculptures such as Rabbit, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Puppy, and Balloon Dog, Koons has created an oeuvre that reflects the interplay between art and viewer. His highly polished stainless steel sculptures function as mirrors of their surroundings, while his vividly colored paintings merge art historical references with organic and symbolic motifs.
Jeff Koons Editions
Girl with Lobster
2009
From Re-Object/Mythos
Digital pigment print (Ditone) on Innova paper, 74.4 x 61 cm (29¼ x 24 in), edition of 45, signed and numbered.
Jeff Koons’ Girl with Lobster is an edition that stages actress Gretchen Mol in her role as Bettie Page with an iconic inflatable lobster. A silver, reflective line drawing in the foreground alludes to fertility, Mother Nature, and Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde, thereby merging art historical references with contemporary visual language. In his portrait composition, Jeff Koons connects art historical influences from Dalí and Duchamp with a modern aesthetic. The work plays on the tension between fetish and innocence, sensuality and provocation – a commentary on the cultural staging of eroticism.
Donkey (Colored)
1999
Grano lithograph, 91 x 70 cm (36 x 28 in). Edition of 99 + 20 A.P., signed and numbered.
In this edition, Jeff Koons combines the outline of a donkey (based on the donkey character in Winnie-the-Pooh) with vibrant, watercolor-like lithographic inks that lend the print an extraordinary depth. The work is a homage to childhood and innocence, connecting to the central visual language of his Easyfun series. Created after the Celebration series – in which Koons reflected on childhood memories – this piece offers a new perspective: inspired by his own experience of fatherhood, it celebrates the naive, playful worldview of youth.
Fun
1998
From Sequences
Three grano lithographs on Biber GS coated board. Each print 50 x 40 cm (19¾ x 15¾ in). Edition of 60 + X + 15 A.P, each signed and numbered.
This edition by Jeff Koons is closely related to later works like Donkey, which references the donkey character from Winnie-the-Pooh while parodying the visual dominance of Disney aesthetics in mass culture. These works are part of the Easyfun series, where Koons uses sculptural mirror objects – often in the form of stylized animals – to explore the interplay between art and consumerism.
Puppy
1998
Offset lithograph/screenprint, 107 x 65 cm (42 x 25½ in), signed and numbered. Edition of 75 + 15 A.P. + 5 H.C.
This edition is based on Jeff Koons’ monumental work Puppy, a 12-meter-tall sculpture of a West Highland Terrier created for documenta in 1992, which has stood in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao since 1997. The sculpture’s surface, planted with thousands of flowers, gives the work a vibrant, organic dimension. For his edition, Jeff Koons transformed this concept: instead of floral elements, the dog’s fur is covered with dynamic splashes and dots of color, reminiscent of confetti. Like the artists of Pop Art, Koons draws on motifs from consumer culture – in this case, a domesticated animal – and alters them to create a new, playful, and iconic visual language.
Jeff Koons
1995
Mirror-polished stainless steel box, 101 x 71 x 5 cm (39¾ x 28 x 2 in), with inflatable plastic elephant, to be hung as wall object, containing 7 offset lithographs, 100 x 70 cm (39½ x 27½ in) each. Each print signed and numbered; box signed and numbered on label. Edition of 50 + 10 A.P.
With this work, Jeff Koons created a retrospective edition that brings together key motifs from his oeuvre. The prints, which reference iconic imagery from his early work, are presented in a specially designed case. This case is conceived as an independent artwork: a highly polished stainless steel box housing an inflatable toy elephant – a characteristic element from Koons’ vocabulary of consumer and pop culture. The edition thus merges reproduction and sculpture into a reflective engagement with value, materiality, and artistic authorship.
