Weng Contemporary (ArtXX AG) is delighted to offer you the latest limited edition by the American artist, Jeff Koons (born 1955, in York, Pennsylvania). Considered as one of the most pre-eminent contemporary artists, with this edition Koons has once again challenged the technical means, with the meticulousness of this project, as well as stretched the capabilities of porcelain practice throughout the 52 sharp cuts of the diamond.
Titled Diamond (Red), Jeff Koons reveals a reimagined iconography of a diamond, he revisits the form of nature´s creation that takes billions of years to form. As always, his works capture perfection not a glimpse or fragment of reality, but of the ideal, of a world of obtained dreams and perfection - the Diamond (Red) has a deliberate visual language that introduces us to a synthetic man-made creation.

The festive, staggeringly beautiful, Diamond in red colour, origins from Koons´s Herculean body of work; the Celebration series, which began in 1994 and took more than a decade to complete, due to Koons´s determination to obtain the desired flawlessness in the works. The Celebration series marks the commercialization of birthdays, holidays, Valentine's Day, and Easter. They act as the vehicle for Koons to reflect upon the mass-made consumer products that are created for celebrating these holidays. This body of work occupies not only a seminal place in Koons’s artistic oeuvre but also in his personal life; his notorious marriage to Illona Staller (Cicciolina), the birth of their son, followed by an abrupt divorce.

Similarly to the original and monumental sculpture of the Diamond, 1994-2005 (measuring seven feet wide and in five unique colour version of Green, Pink, Blue, Yellow, Red), the porcelain limited fine-art edition shares a highly polished chromium surface that reflects light, but does not refract it in the same way as a real diamond, where light travels through the precious gemstone´s 52 cuts. Characteristic of Koons´s artworks, they share a deliberate mirroring effect of its environment, the surrounding,s and that of the viewer(s) - one cannot see the artwork without seeing oneself.

The Diamond (Red) is presented in the company of four gleaming golden settings at its corners, embracing the gemstone from every angle to keep it safe and in place. The narration of a diamond placed in a contemporary context is viewed as a cliche gesture of love and commitment, also socially considered as a symbol of affluence. Commercial red diamonds are commonly known as the most expensive and the rarest diamond colour in the world. It's so rare in fact, that it is thought that only 30 true gem-quality red diamonds are known to exist. However, Koons has stated that "I am not interested in capitalism at all. I´m not interested in objects. I don´t care about money. I´m interested in people, human desire, and aspiration, having daily interconnection with the people I value. I believe in experience, and having transcendence in your life".

Greeks believed that diamonds were the tears of gods, and Plato suggested that they were living celestial spirits embodied in stones, further adding to the mystique and power that surrounded the stone. In Roman literature, dated from the first century AD, Cupid’s arrows were diamond-tipped. This visual language references today´s narration of love, procreation, and commercially indicated in the minimal geometric forms and/or cuts of a diamond ring. The diamond is viewed as a classic symbol of love that represents light, permanence, and sincerity, it has been rooted in history and in the human DNA.

Koon´s limited edition of the Diamond (Red) is composed of valuable Limoges porcelain. Its materiality echoes the subject of life and creation, through its use of clay (being the main ingredient of porcelain). With the medium of porcelain Koons makes yet once again a reference to the "creation of life from clay", the miraculous birth theme present in Christianity, mythology, and abundantly found in literature.

For the artist the Diamond “It’s not about bling; but it’s about the moment of creation. The posts on the sides of the diamond represent male energy, and the diamond is an egg. The stone is attached to a ring by four prongs. For me, the prongs are like sperm attacking an ovum. The facets of the diamond are the egg in the process of being fertilized. One symbol of male energy, sperm, already entered the egg and all the facets of life are unfolding. If you go back to the furthest point here at the back, that is as far back as we could go in human history. That represents the truest narrative we have of human history, which are our genes and our DNA. I wanted to start to make works that dealt with more of an inward connectivity. The way our genes and DNA are interconnected, like a double helix, our cultural lives are interconnected.”