“When I made it, I was just thinking about the ideas around me. I was involved with banal images. I realized that people respond to banal things; they don’t accept their own history; they’re not participating in acceptance within their own being. I started then to take that into the body. Where do people start to feel guilt and shame and rejection of the self?” – Jeff Koons

To this day, Made in Heaven remains the most controversial work in Jeff Koons' career. This provocative series—comprising paintings, sculptures, and installations—celebrates, in unabashedly explicit terms, his union with his wife Ilona Staller, the Italian porn star and politician known as La Cicciolina.

For the project, Koons adopted Ilona’s usual photographer and backdrops, immersing his imagery in the aesthetics of glamour photography. By blurring the line between fine art and pornography, he directly confronted traditional notions of artistic taste and moral boundaries. Rather than dictate meaning, Koons left his audience to grapple with their own perceptions, forcing them to question where they draw the line between art, intimacy, and provocation.