concept:era contemporary
Balloon Dog (Orange)
Mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture with transparent colour coating by Jeff Koons, 1994–2000. One of an edition of 5 (+1 AP) in five colours. Sold at Christie's New York, 12 November 2013, for $58,405,000 — at that time the world record for a living artist at auction.
Scholarly Significance
Anchor the contemporary sculpture / Neo-Pop market node with the highest-priced work by a living artist at the time of its 2013 auction.
Notes
- ·The Balloon Dog series (1994–2000) is part of Koons' Celebration series, which began in 1994 to commemorate childhood and memory.
- ·The surface imitates a balloon twisted into a dog shape, hyper-realistically enlarged to monumental scale and rendered in polished metal — a hallmark of Koons' Neo-Pop aesthetic.
- ·The 2013 sale temporarily surpassed Damien Hirst's £9.65M record (2007) for a living artist; subsequently superseded by Koons' own Rabbit (1986) sale at Christie's 2019 for $91.1M.
- ·Other Balloon Dog colour variants are held at: Broad Museum LA (Blue), Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Magenta), Château La Coste France (Yellow), private collection (Red).