Jeff Koons

Most known for his larger than life sculptures, Koons lives and works out of New York City.  He studied painting at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and the Maryland Institute College of Art.  While making a name for himself, he worked as a Wall Street commodities broker and at the membership desk of the Museum of Modern Art.

In the mid 80's, he became somewhat well known and created a 'factory-like' studio, similar to Andy Warhol's Factory.  He hired over thirty people to assist him, each one assigned to a specific part of producing his work.  The two pieces below are two of that brought Jeff Koons' name to the forefront in the art field.

                        The 'New' Series (Hoover Vacuums)                  The 'Equilibrium' Series

Although the above pieces were some of the pieces that helped bring him to fame, he is probably most well known for his 'Celebration' series.  This series includes several larger than life sculptures of Easter eggs and balloon dogs.  Each piece has been built with a mirrored finish covering a high-chromium stainless steel frame.  One of my favorite is the pink balloon dog located in Paris (pictured below).

'Balloon Dog'

Along with his well known presence in the art world, Jeff Koons' name has been mentioned in the field of law.  In 1992, he was taken to court for copyright infringement.  Art Rogers, of Germany, had taken a picture of a couple holding eight puppies which was printed on cards and other simple merchandise items.  Koons took that image and created a wood painted sculpture that looks very similar.  His sculpture was a huge success; he sold three of them for a total of $360,000.  Anyway, once in court, Koons ended up losing the case and had to give a large monetary settlement and ship the fourth of the series to Rogers in Germany. Follow Koons v. Rogers for the rest of the story.  In 2005, he was sued again for copyright infringement, Koons v. Blanch, only this time he won.

Overall, Koons has done very well for himself, making lots of money doing what he loves.  There is one piece though, that sticks out to me.  It falls into the category of his 'Equilibrium' Series.  Not only have his pieces been a huge success in the art world, but apparently they have made their way into the sports world.  I stumbled upon this article in which Lebron James was in the process of making a deal with the New York Knicks with the requirement that Koons would redesign uniform. Koons and Lebron James were talking with each other about redesigning the entire Madison Square Garden, the locker rooms and even place several balloon sculptures around the property.  The picture below was taken when the two were discussing the requirements of Lebron's deal.

'Lebron in Equilibrium'

(The article I found about Lebron James and Koons is not actually real.  When you read the article, the story states that it's not true., which I found hilarious!)