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Lot Essay
In Inflatable Flower (Tall Orange) Corner, conceived in 1979, a tall inflatable flower with vibrant orange petals and a yellow center perches, perkily, atop an open structure of mirrored glass tiles that fits into a corner on the floor. The mirrors reflect the surroundings bringing to mind affirmation. The tall vinyl inflatable flower, multiplied in the mirror's reflection, is associated with fertility, the cycle of life, and springtime. The Inflatables series acts as a “poetic vehicle through which to conjure states of equilibrium and instability, fullness and emptiness, joy and disgust, life and death—the prosaic objects of the outer world made lapidary mirrors of our inner ones.” (S. Rothkopf, ”No Limits,” Jeff Koons, exh. cat., New York, 2014, p. 17).
In the late 1970s, Koons’s interest in the readymade manifested itself in his East Village apartment, where he installed found objects he collected downtown, including various inflatable toys and dollar store treasures. The result was a boisterous and absurd satire, a surreal and subversive interrogation of high versus low art. Colorful arrangements including inflatable flowers with anthropomorphic qualities were displayed on pre-cut mirrored glass tiles throughout the room, creating a dialogue between Pop Art and Minimalism. All at once, the installation was both an homage to Andy Warhol’s silkscreened flowers of the ‘60s while also recalling Arte Povera and Minimalism.
Inflatable Flower (Tall Orange) Corner represents Jeff Koons’s early fascination with the discrepancy between the ephemeral and the enduring. Through the use of the inflatable object, he creates a memento mori, approaching mortality through nature and memorializing that which must die. While the flowers do not need water or sunlight, at any moment the vinyl blow-ups could deflate, which represents the precarious nature of life. “I think of the inflatables as anthropomorphic, we are ourselves inflatables, we take a breath, we expand; we contract, our last breath in life, our deflation” (J. Koons quoted in S. Murg, “Jeff Koons: We Are Ourselves Inflatables,” August 6, 2009). Despite these references towards the ephemeral and the end of life, Koons's Inflatables series lives on in the rest of his oeuvre, providing a major source of inspiration for the series that followed.
In the late 1970s, Koons’s interest in the readymade manifested itself in his East Village apartment, where he installed found objects he collected downtown, including various inflatable toys and dollar store treasures. The result was a boisterous and absurd satire, a surreal and subversive interrogation of high versus low art. Colorful arrangements including inflatable flowers with anthropomorphic qualities were displayed on pre-cut mirrored glass tiles throughout the room, creating a dialogue between Pop Art and Minimalism. All at once, the installation was both an homage to Andy Warhol’s silkscreened flowers of the ‘60s while also recalling Arte Povera and Minimalism.
Inflatable Flower (Tall Orange) Corner represents Jeff Koons’s early fascination with the discrepancy between the ephemeral and the enduring. Through the use of the inflatable object, he creates a memento mori, approaching mortality through nature and memorializing that which must die. While the flowers do not need water or sunlight, at any moment the vinyl blow-ups could deflate, which represents the precarious nature of life. “I think of the inflatables as anthropomorphic, we are ourselves inflatables, we take a breath, we expand; we contract, our last breath in life, our deflation” (J. Koons quoted in S. Murg, “Jeff Koons: We Are Ourselves Inflatables,” August 6, 2009). Despite these references towards the ephemeral and the end of life, Koons's Inflatables series lives on in the rest of his oeuvre, providing a major source of inspiration for the series that followed.