Swan Balloon A new sculpture by Jeff Koons at the...

Swan Balloon

A new sculpture by Jeff Koons at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel

Originally conceived as a small project for a calendar, Celebration has since developed into Koons’s most elaborate series to date. From 1994 onwards, Koons was involved for many years in this massive project, which consists of monumental sculptures made of polyethylene or high chromium stainless steel as well as large-format oil paintings. The history of the creation of Celebration is closely tied up with events in Koons’s family life, particularly the birth of his son Ludwig Maximilian in 1992. In its character as a feast of the childlike, the Celebration series can also be seen as a token of the father’s love for the son who was taken away from him. - Fondation Beyeler website

A few years ago in 2009, Koons speaks about a balloon swan to a journalist explaining his fascination with the form, “This is a swan. [Koons holds up a small balloon-swan form] This swan is very totemic, very phallic. But if you look at the side view of the swan, it’s all a very sexual harmony and then the inside’s totally feminine and vaginal-and so it functions. Beauty is really sexualized. For me it was an epiphany, looking at this on the computer, two-dimensionally. I enjoy things that have a lot of layers to them and are connected. Anything that is connecting and that has a lot of different layers I become curious then …“

Genevalaunch.com: “Jeff Koons challenges Beyeler visitors on definition of art”

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Interview Magazine: “Jeff Koons”