Jeff Koons – “Spalding Lone Basketball in Water Tank”

1995

This rare and visually arresting lithograph by Jeff Koons features the image of a lone basketball suspended in perfect stillness at the center of a water-filled tank. 

The lithograph is hand-signed and dated by the artist ‘Koons ’95’ in pencil lower right
and hand-numbered in pencil in the lower right. It belongs to a strictly limited edition of only 50 copies, making it a rare and highly collectible piece.
Sheet size : 100 x 70 cm

"There’s a mystery, a magic to the work." It is both an ordinary basketball—and something far more sublime. The work is based on Koons’ seminal 1985 sculpture One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J Silver Series)—a defining moment in conceptual and post-pop art. 

Koons collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman to achieve this moment of apparent stasis, seeking a perfect equilibrium that ultimately proved scientifically unachievable in permanent form. Yet in this lithograph, the illusion is eternal.

Jeff Koons (b. 1955) is one of the most influential contemporary artists, known for his bold, ironic, and often controversial works that merge pop art, conceptualism, and consumerist culture. From balloon animals in stainless steel to recontextualized household objects, Koons' work blurs the line between high and low art, questioning the nature of artistic value and authorship. His work is featured in major museums worldwide, including the Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou, and Guggenheim Museum.