Steel rabbit hops away with record

Jeff Koons’ work captured a playful simplicity deemed well worth $91 m.

Agencies
Jeff Koons' steel rabbit fetched $91 mn at auction
This week, a 3-ft shiny stainless steel version of a typical inflatable bunny by Jeff Koons — obviously titled Rabbit — fetched just over $91 million at an auction in New York, a new record for a work by a living artist. This sale helped him regain this distinction from David Hockney, whose 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) had sold for $90.3 million last year, toppling the previous record of $58.4 million set by Koons’ Balloon Dog (Orange). Both record-breaking works are part of a series of Koons’ creations that not only have his signature rounded lines, but are also what the art world cautiously describes as ‘playful’ and ‘naïve’. The catalogue description of the Rabbit sculpture ventures so far as to say that it “taps into the visual language of childhood”. In other words, it is an image that children generally love.

No wonder plastic cartoon rabbits and animal figures made of twisted balloons are invariably sold at carnivals. Only, inflatable playthings don’t last; and perhaps many millionaires never get over some similar toys they lost to an accidental poke when they were five years old. And Koons brilliantly tapped into that sentiment, as many of his most famous and coveted works have that childlike simplicity. And what are a few millions if those can preserve or resurrect a precious memory?
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