At this year’s Art Basel, world-famous contemporary artist Jeff Koons showed off his first-ever NFT collection. An interesting idea that will probably go to the moon, but maybe not in the way you might think.
During the most recent art event in Switzerland, Jeff took the time to talk about his latest project. He showed off 125 small sculptures of the moon that he made himself and He will place on the moon’s surface. So, in the near future, it will take off with the help of Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX. And land 384k km away on everyone’s second favorite celestial body.
Collectors paid $2 million each for each of these exclusive NFTs. After the cosmic placement, they serve as a digital certificate of authenticity and give the owner the right to a photo of the moon’s new location. All of this is in addition to a sculpture of the moon with a gem to show where it really is.
Even though the project is very ambitious, some people have questioned how it will affect the environment. For example, rocket launches raise a lot of environmental sustainability. And also putting man-made objects on the moon’s surface could have negative effects.
Jeff Koons’ impact on the NFT market so far
Arguably without Koons, the public will not accept mass-produced NFts avatar. After Andy Warhol, he was part of a group of artists who used their art to not only look at how markets work but also try to copy them.
Since the beginning of his career, Koons has been interested in branding and advertising. For example, in his 1986 series Luxury and Degradation, he reprinted and framed old alcohol ads. Two years later, for his Banality series show Art Magazine Ads, he made his own ads, which he then put in art magazines all over the country.
But his avatar look-alike works came out even earlier. In the 1970s, Koons’ Statuary series already included sculptures made of toy balloons. Although he sometimes moved away from his own style to draw cartoons of famous people, he always went back to his balloon figures.
Just like the sculptures and pictures by Hirst, Murakami, and KAWS, the balloon figures enjoy a kind of infantilization. At some point, it becomes hard to tell what is the commentary and what is just keeping the form alive. These artists see their work as a reflection of the market. But there is a thin line between ironic performance and becoming what you once criticized.
Koons has spent his whole career blurring or even breaking down the line between art and the market. And the destruction of this line is what made it possible for some NFT projects to be taken seriously as possible art objects. A “Bored Ape” and a “Balloon Dog” don’t have to mean anything. They are a great asset, and that is their art.
Now that Koons has changed the art world, it makes sense that he would start making NFTs. Even though Koons may be the most popular living artist, digital artist Beeple, who sold an NFT for $69.3 million last year, is not too far behind.