Pink Ballerina

As one of the most prominent and influential artists in the contemporary art world, Jeff Koons began his Antiquity series in 2010, paying homage to the light of wisdom and humanity in the history of humankind using figures from Greek mythology, while conveying optimism about the future. Pink Ballerina, a representative work from this series, was inspired by a German porcelain figurine less than five inches in size. Using the goddess Aphrodite as the prototype of the ballerina, Koons pays homage to the classical sculptures of the Italian Renaissance. Employing state-of-the-art sculpting techniques to carve the classical pink marble, Koons recreated the soft textures and shapeshifting tensions in the ballet costume’s pleated fabric folds, making the piece one of Koons’ most exquisite sculptures to date.