(1955)

Born in 1955 in Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons is one of the world's most widely recognized artists. Koons's earliest works from the late 1970's were mass-produced inflatable flowers and toys placed carefully on mirrors.

His focus on the selection, production, and display of commercial products continued in the 1980's. Sculptures and photographs completed by Koons during this time explored contemporary American iconography and the relationship between popular kitsch and high art.

His work has been the subject of many exhibitions both in the United States and Europe, including major museum retrospectives organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1992) and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1992), and solo exhibitions at the Sonnabend Gallery, New York (1999) and the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (1997).

Jeff Koons's Puppy was exhibited in the U.S. for the first time at New York City's Rockefeller Center. Rising 43 feet from its paws to its ears, the sculpture was formed from a series of stainless steel armatures constructed to hold over 25 tons of soil watered by an internal irrigation system. Over 70,000 multi-hued flowering plants grew from this steel and soil structure, including Marigolds, Begonias, Impatiens, Petunias, and Lobelias. First created in 1992 for a temporary exhibition in the German city of Arolson, Puppy - a symbol, according to Koons, of "love, warmth and happiness" - was a contemporary artwork that captured Koons's sculptural imagination, horticultural dexterity, and engineering skill.