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Jeff Koons’s works blur the definitions of “high art,” popular culture and kitsch. They have had a significant influence on several artists in the exhibition Happy!, including Takashi Murakami, KAWS, FriendsWithYou and Alake Shilling, who similarly reference childhood toys and cartoon characters to engage the viewer’s emotions. Inspired by his own happy childhood, Koons bases his masterfully produced sculptures on cute plastic inflatable toys and balloon animals. As balloon animals are among the earliest forms of sculpture encountered by children, Koons’s whimsical works may trigger happy memories.


Although the works on view mimic shiny Mylar toy balloons that have been inflated with air and twisted into the shape of a monkey, swan and rabbit, they are actually finely crafted porcelain figurines polished to a mirror-smooth patina; and while balloons are ephemeral, these figurines remain permanently flawless. Moreover, as the balloon animal sculptures look malleable and hollow, they contradict traditional properties associated with sculpture—weight and density. Brightly colored, friendly, and erotically suggestive, these sculptures seem to pose no threat to viewers except, perhaps, to their definition of the nature of art. Koons, however, discourages viewers from fretting over whether they should appreciate his work as high art or kitsch. Whatever the viewer’s response, is just “fine.”


Koons associates the balloons with life, stating, “I’ve always enjoyed balloon animals because they’re like us. We’re balloons. You take a breath and you inhale, it’s an optimism. You exhale, and it’s kind of a symbol of death.”