Balloon Monkey (Blue), is a limited edition that transforms a simple twisted rubber balloon monkey into porcelain. Incorporating the vocabulary of his iconic Celebration sculptures, Balloon Monkey, along with two other animals, Balloon Rabbit and Balloon Swan, marked a spectacular new chapter in Jeff Koons’s oeuvre.

“It is about celebration and childhood and color and simplicity – but it’s also a Trojan horse. It’s a Trojan horse to the whole body of art work.”

JEFF KOONS

Jeff Koons has been interested in cultural subject matter with widespread appeal throughout his career. It is, therefore, fitting that the monkey has been a recurring motif in his body of work. Humankind’s close kinship with primates has captured artist’s fascination throughout history, serving as an allegorical figure for universal themes such as the pursuit of pleasure, sexuality and innocence. Koons merges these typically contradictory concepts through the reduction of the subject to its most essential form.

We are thrilled to offer you an exclusive, limited edition, the Collector´s Set of the Balloon Animals. Incorporating the vocabulary of Jeff Koons´s iconic Celebration series; the Balloon Rabbit, Balloon Monkey, and Balloon Swan, that marked a spectacular new chapter in the artist´s oeuvre.

The limited-edition, now in a matching edition number - only 40 editions created, touches on various important subjects of the history of art; such as the biblical creation, our anti-aging obsession, the memento mori, cheating death, as well as through its materiality; porcelain with chromatic coating. Koons democratizes porcelain, a material once used exclusively for kings, to the masses, and the reflection of the Balloon Animals adds elements of the Greek myth of Narcissus - "if you don´t move, nothing happens", as Koons has said.

The six artwork figures presented as a set have been very successful and performed very well in the auction market. In 2019, it was first offered at the Dorotheum as a matching edition number set and it sold for $85,000. In 3 months another matching Collector´s Set was offered at Phillips, in New York, and the price it fetched was over $93,000 - a price increase of 10%. In 2020, another matching set was offered, at Phillips in London, and it sold for $100,000 – an almost 20% price increase in 6 months. It is interesting to notice that despite the geographic location; Vienna, New York, and London, these Jeff Koons Balloon Animals, in matching edition number, are very desirable and they have shown price appreciation in a very short amount of time.

Rabbit: 29.2 x 13.9 x 21 cm (11.5 x 5.4 x 8.2 in)
Monkey: 24.9 x 20.9 x 39.2 cm (9.8 x 8.2 x 15.4 in)
Swan: 24.1 x 16.4 x 21 cm (9.4 x 6.4 x 8.2 in)

Inspired by a twisted rubber balloon rabbit, Balloon Rabbit (Violet), is a highly reflective red porcelain limited edition. Incorporating the vocabulary of his iconic Celebration sculptures, Balloon Rabbit, along with two other animals, Balloon Monkey and Balloon Swan, marked a spectacular new chapter in Jeff Koons’s oeuvre.

“One of the things that I’m most proud of is making work that lets viewers not feel intimidated by art, but feel that they can emotionally participate in it through their senses and their intellect and be fully engaged”.

JEFF KOONS

The idea for a Balloon Rabbit sculpture came to Jeff Koons from his upbringing in south-central Pennsylvania. At special times of the year, people would decorate their front yard with reindeer at Christmas and inflatable rabbits at Easter. As his neighbors wished t give pleasure to other people with these decoration, the artist is proud to make art that is not intimidated for the viewers.

Jeff Koons transforms a simple twisted balloon swan into a reflective yellow porcelain limited edition, Balloon Swan (Yellow). Incorporating the vocabulary of his iconic Celebration sculptures, Balloon Swan, along with two other animals, Balloon Monkey and Balloon Rabbit, marked a spectacular new chapter in Koons’s oeuvre.

"Balloon Swan harmonizes sexual energy. If you look at it from the front, it’s totem-like and male. If you go to the side it becomes female. Balloon Swan is reminiscent of classical works, it defines beauty as sexual harmony.”

JEFF KOONS

Koons had an epiphany when he first saw the swan’s two-dimensional form on the computer as for the artist it represents at the same time male and female aspects. The figure of the swan has always had significant personal resonance for the artist; it was one of the first sculptures Koons made at 9 years old in ceramic, for which the young artist diligently worked on to get the angle of the neck correct.

Weng Contemporary is delighted to present you with the most iconic work of the 21st century and as Jeff Koons himself has called it the "Trojan horse“ of the Celebration series. The only authentic limited edition depicting the free-standing Balloon Dog is finally here.
This edition is a reproduction of the larger sculpture of the Balloon Dog from the Celebration series, as conceived in five unique colours (starting with Blue, Magenta, Yellow, Orange, Red) starting in 1994 and completing them in 2000.
The Balloon Dog has chameleon-like qualities; its reflective surface is capable of physically changing with its surroundings and its many-layered meanings make it conceptually change in the mind of each viewer.
This limited art edition comes from an edition size of 799 pieces and was created of Limoges porcelain and manufactured in Limoges, France. The freestanding limited edition of the Balloon Dog (Blue) requires 60 people for the production of each work and it takes a full month to complete one. Its creation combines traditional porcelain decoration techniques with new technologies which are not typically applied to ceramics, this combination allows to achieve metallic and reflective characteristics.