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Jeff Koons, the world’s most expensive living artist, has announced a project to release his first NFT (non-fungible token). The announcement was made by the artist at the Pinakothek der Moderne museum of Munich, at the launch of his new art car collaboration with BMW.
The artist announced that he was in the process of developing a digital artwork in NFT form and he expects to release it within a year on the occasion of two exhibitions, the first one in Palo Alto, California in 2022, and the second one in New York in 2023. Even though Koons is best known for his physical artworks, he referred to the creation of the NFT as a natural process in his career. He explained how in the last two decades his art has used the digital and the technology tools in order to simplify and to hone the creative process.
The Balloon Venus “Holen Fels” becomes an NFT
The new artworks probably will be a digital version of his previous physical works, as the artist declared to The Art Newspaper:
“Depending on what ends up being shown in Palo Alto, it may be a piece I have already created which is one of my Balloon Venuses. I believe it’s going to be the Hohlen Fels. If things stay on track, that is what will be shown there.”
It is known that there are five versions of Hohlen Fels: red, violet, orange, yellow and magenta, but Koons did not say which one he will choose.
The artwork is a part of the Antiquity series and takes its inspiration from the Venus of Hohle Fels, a prehistorical ivory sculpture discovered in a cave in Germany. It is dated to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago, and shows a Venus with strong shapes, symbol of fertility and reproduction. Koons gets his inspiration from an ancient artifact, reinterpreting it with contemporary shapes in a huge (more than 2 meter and a half in high) stainless steel sculpture which recalls the balloons composition of the birthday parties. The artist plays with the kitsch aesthetic, and he creates a bridge between a far past and mass production and commercialization which characterize the contemporary world.
