Image: Park Life

If you don’t watch out, the art world will make your head spin. This week when Jeff Koons, an American artist who has made a career out of commenting on kitsch, slapped a San Francisco boutique with a cease and desist order it wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary. He’s no stranger to the business realities of the art world, having cut his teeth as a Wall Street commodities broker before making it big with his paintings and sculpture.

Image: Wikipedia

The fact that he and his battery of attorneys would threaten legal action isn’t what’s surprising: it’s the object in dispute that’s of interest. In the 1980s Koons rose to fame with his large, polished stainless-steel statues of children’s toys and balloon animals.  This week it was a likeness of a balloon dog, sold as a bookend by Park Life, a San Francisco gallery and shop, that caused a stir.

Evidently, Koons is of the opinion that, at least within the realm of art, he owns a trademark on any likeness of the ubiquitous balloon dog. That’s a pretty serious claim to make, but realistically, he may have a leg to stand on. As an artist, he has chosen to elevate familiar forms to previously unimagined status — that of objets d’art. I guess in this instance it comes down to whether or not the shop was selling other balloon animal bookends. That’s the dividing line between referencing the work of an artist, and working with a concept of your own.

Image: Flavorwire.com

It’s murky territory, but it’s also very unlikely that Park Life will contest the cease and desist order. Battling millionaire artists isn’t always financially viable for small store/galleries, so they have removed the product from their shelves.

Wasabi Boy by Izumi Kastner zatista.com

If you’re disappointed you missed buying the bookends, don’t worry. Zatista has plenty of arty dogs for you including this one, and there are no tricky legal docs or threatening goons involved.

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