Koons-One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J Silver Series)

Envisaging such a work was one thing; however, realising it was another. With the guidance of

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman, Koons was able to attain a state of equilibrium

for several months, although the ‘permanent equilibrium’ he originally envisaged remained

beyond reach. Created in 1985, at a time when the contemporary art world was dominated by the

wild and emotive splashes of Neo-Expressionist painting and the raw energy of graffiti art, this

deceptively simple, readymade-like work is one that ran directly counter to the prevailing

tendency of its time. But like Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain before it, One Ball Total Equilibrium

Tank is a work that can now be seen to have single-handedly announced and epitomised an

entirely new direction in art —one that directly acknowledged and addressed the socio-economic

realities of 1980s, late-capitalist consumer culture.

‘Basketball was a means for people to rise up to a different level in society,’ Koons says, referring

to the role that the sport took on in lower-class communities. By using this ‘symbol of optimism’,

Koons references socio-economics, American capitalism’s enduring promise of social mobility and

the power of the advertising industry that manipulates this dream, exemplified in the popular

Nike posters of the 1980s.

http://www.christies.com/features/Jeff-Koons-One-Ball-Total-Equilibrium-Tank-7307-3.aspx

Auktion 2016 : 16 Mio $ http://derstandard.at/2000036560472/Umstrittene-Hitler-Skulptur-fuer-

17-2-Millionen-Dollar-versteigert

Link: Hirst „The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”