Whatever your opinion of the artist Jeff Koons, at least his latest reason for being in the news is philanthropic: The New York Times reports that the contemporary artist has donated a statue of a fist clutching a bunch of tulips — in his signature “balloon animal” style — to the people of Paris. The piece, titled Bouquet of Tulips, will be 34 feet high, 27 feet wide, and 33 feet deep, making it one of Koons’s largest pieces to date; it was commissioned in commemoration of the 2015 terrorist attacks in the city. Bouquet will be placed in front of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris upon completion (it’s currently under construction in Germany). Notably, the normally well-compensated Koons waived his artist fee for the piece, which he compares to the Statue of Liberty, a gift from Paris to the United States in 1886. The artist went so far as to model the hand clutching the tulips in his piece after Lady Liberty’s torch-bearing arm. Bouquet of Tulips will be installed upon completion next year.
