The sculptures that evoke the inflatable animal shapes given by clowns at children's parties, of course, but also the series dedicated to diamonds and the seated ballerina.
The sculptures that have become the unmistakable trademark of Jeff Koons and other works rarely exhibited to the public are brought together in the exhibition The Balloons World which the Deodato Arte Gallery is dedicating until February 24th to the American artist, famous for his research based on pop imagery, manipulation of products of common use - and consumption - and the contaminations of the classical tradition.
Here, then, are Balloon Animals and Balloon Dog, which from kitsch pieces become works with staggering prices, sought after by international exhibition spaces and great collectors.
At the center of the exhibition is the Celebration series, which began in the 1990s and was inspired by the inflatable decorations displayed in the courtyards of the houses in south-central Pennsylvania where Koons grew up.
The artist was able to transform everyday objects into sculptures covered with a metallic and reflective chromatic coating that gives a fragile and light appearance.
The joyful Balloon Dog Blue, in chrome-plated Limoges porcelain, recalls balloon animals, "but - observe the curators - it also makes fun of the rhetoric of the equestrian statues present in many cities around the world and could represent a modern Trojan horse" .
The Diamonds series, from 2020 and 2023, is inspired by the monumental sculptures of 1994. "It's not about pomp, but about the moment of creation - explains Koons -. The hooks on the sides of the diamond represent male energy, while the diamond It's an egg."
Seated Ballerina is a painted wooden sculpture that represents a dancer while she puts on her shoes.
"She is like a Venus - he points out -. You could see the Venus of Willendorf or one of the many ancient Venuses. It is truly a work on beauty and the sense of contemplation, of quiet".
In 2017 the colossal inflatable version - 13 meters high - was exhibited in front of the Rockefeller Center in New York to support the International Center for Missing and Abused Children.
Finally, Carracci Flower, inspired by the erotic etchings of the sixteenth-century illustrator Agostino Carracci, represents a naked female figure and her partner.
Jeff Koons, born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1955, rose to fame in the mid-1980s as one of a generation of artists who explored the meaning of art in the media age.
Since his first solo exhibition in 1980, his work has been exhibited in major galleries and institutions around the world and was the subject of a major retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and hosted by the Center Pompidou in Paris and the Guggenheim of Bilbao.
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