Balloon Dog (Blue)

As part of Jeff Koons’s Celebration, an ongoing series of paintings and sculptures that memorialize the rituals, icons, and images surrounding birthdays, holidays, and other party occasions, Balloon Dog (Blue) may be the most imposing work. Using the recognizable form of a balloon twisted into the shape of a dog, Koons has frozen a moment in time, exaggerating both scale and material. Balloon Dog (Blue) is literal and abstract. When standing close to it, one’s own distorted reflection bends around smooth pert curves. The work is a collection of shapes, each segment alone does not look like part of a dog’s anatomy — in fact Koons often references human sexual anatomy — but taken as a whole Balloon Dog (Blue) is an aloof sentinel cloaked in nostalgia.