How Kaws Became the Face of Contemporary Art Blueprint
"I utilize the X the same way that Mercedes uses the grille on their cars… You see them in the rearview mirror and but accept a glimpse of it, and you know the style of the car going backside you."
— KAWS
Immediately grabbing the attention of the viewer with its commanding scale and refined graphic way, NEW YORK is a prime example of American artist KAWS's unique visual linguistic communication. Fresh to auction, having remained in private hands since the year information technology was painted, the present work is a rare, original rendering of one of the creative person's virtually iconic images. Every bit the chosen composition to feature every bit the cover image of KAWS's collaboration with New York Magazine for the publication's 50th anniversary year-long public arts programme—with other invited artists including Alex Katz, Emily Mae Smith, George Condo, Kerry James Marshall, Yoko Ono, and Tschabalala Self—the image most recently featured on a KAWS x COMME de GARÇONS 2021 perfume bottle pattern.
In a reduced colour palette of Kazimir Malevich-esque ruby ruby-red contrasting bright white, KAWS paints a pooling puddle of blood in NEW YORK. Reaching out from below the scarlet ripples are a pair of gloved hands marked with the creative person'due south signature 10'due south, appearing only moments away from being completely submerged.
Left: Kazimir Malevich, Painterly Realism of a Peasant Adult female in Two Dimensions, 1951
Collection of the Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg
Right: KAWS, KEEP MOVING, 2012
Sold past Phillips London on nine March 2018 for £909,000
Harkening back to KAWS's 2012-piece,Go on MOVING, the disembodied easily recall numerous popular culture references that range from 'Matter' from the famed The Adamms Family movies to when Star Wars Jedi Luke Skywalker loses his hand during an epic duel. At the same time, whilst the gloves are instantly recognisable equally belonging to KAWS's internationally dearest COMPANION effigy, their cartoonish delineation further nods to prophylactic-hose animation characters whom KAWS presumably takes inspiration from, having previously worked equally a freelance animator for Jumbo Pictures.
The fictional character 'Thing' from The Addams Family, 1991
Luke Skywalker loses his hand, still from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Dorsum, 1997
Following in the footsteps of artists such as Andy Warhol, who famously injected commercial products into spaces of fine fine art, KAWS taps into the cornball warmth of pop-art graphics to imbue the present work with a playful intricacy. Starkly juxtaposing this, withal, is the more morbid edge the composition presents which, when considered in relationship to the work'southward championship, can peradventure be understood equally a darkly humoured homage to the city the artist calls home.
Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans (detail), 1962
Collection of the Museum of Modern Fine art, New York
© 2021 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
As such, a more apt comparison can arguably be made to the visually hitting works of Roy Lichtenstein, who employed comic-strip iconography to explore highly emotive motifs including that of morality and destruction. However, unlike Lichtenstein's inclusion of text-filled speech bubbles that help convey to the viewer his subject field'due south inner concerns, KAWS'south compositions are coolly ambiguous, characterised by unexpected twists of the recognisable that help to ascertain his simultaneously endearing and sinister visual earth.
In speaking of the tension that permeates his cartoonish artful, the artist explains 'even though I use a comic linguistic communication, my figures are not e'er reflecting the idealistic drawing view that I grew up on, where everything has a happy ending...I want to understand the world I'm in and, for me, making and seeing fine art is a way to do that.' i
Roy Lichtenstein, Drowning Daughter, 1963
Collection of the Museum of Modernistic Art, New York
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Nodding to his background as a graffiti-artist provocateur tagging billboards across New York, NEW YORK perfectly showcases KAWS'southward striking still simple signature approach of bold colour and refined line. With this in a heed, an interesting comparison tin can exist made to the piece of work of anonymous British artist Banksy, whom also, is celebrated for his direct visual language that is whimsical even so with a satirical tone.
But whereas Banksy uses his imagery to convey social or political critique, KAWS's work instead elicits complex emotional responses as his COMPANION portrayals accost the ubiquitous feelings of isolation, anxiety, and the desire for human connection. Moreover, whilst Banksy has become renowned for his spray paint and stencil technique, NEW YORK reveals KAWS'southward masterful command over his medium as the sharply painted shapes are executed with swift, calligraphic line that leaves no trace of the artist'southward complimentary-handed approach.
Every bit an exceptional work from one of the most defining and forward-thinking artists of our present age, NEW YORK demonstrates the sophisticated sense of humour that has propelled KAWS to becoming a household proper name. As curator Michael Auping elucidates:
"KAWS is not only referring to popular culture, he is making it."
— Michael Auping
How KAWS Became the Face of Contemporary Art, 2017
Video courtesy of Blueprint
Regarded as i of the well-nigh important creators of his generation for his ingenuity of reconceptualising some of the earth's nearly cherished icons, work by KAWS can be establish in prominent public collections around the world. This includes the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; CAC Malaga; Museum of Contemporary Fine art San Diego; Loftier Museum of Art, Atlanta; and the Rosenblum Collection, Paris.
In addition to extensive solo exhibitons effectually the earth, KAWS's exercise has almost recently been honoured with a solo exhibition , KAWS: SPOKE Likewise SOON, at Skarstedt in New York (5 Nov – 11 Dec 2021). KAWS likewise recently exhibited a awe-inspiring retrospective in his hometown, KAWS: WHAT Political party , which was hosted by the Brooklyn Museum in New York between 26 Feb – 5 September 2021.
Recent solo exhibitions also include the Mori Arts Centre in Tokyo (16 July – 11 October 2021), and a retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia (2019-2020). An upcoming exhibition will soon open up at the High Museum of Fine art in Atlanta: KAWS PRINTS , which will run from three December 2021 – 27 March 2022.
KAWS, SPOKE Besides Soon, 2021
Featured as part of Skarstedt, New York, KAWS: SPOKE TOO SOON, 5 November – xi December 2021, the work showcases themes that extend upon those explored in NEW YORK
iKAWS, as quoted in KAWS. WHERE THE END STARTS, exh. cat., Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, 2016, p.5
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Skarstedt Gallery, New York
Acquired from the higher up by the present owner in 2018 -
American • 1974
To empathize the work of KAWS is to understand his roots in the skateboard and graffiti crews of New York City. Brian Donnelly chose KAWS equally his moniker to tag metropolis streets commencement in the 1990s, and speedily became a celebrated standout in the scene. Having swapped spray paint for explorations in fine art spanning sculpture, painting and collage, KAWS has maintained a fascination with classic cartoons, including Garfield, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons, and reconfigured familiar subjects into a world of fantasy.
Peradventure he is well-nigh known for his larger-than-life fiberglass sculptures that supercede the torso of Mickey Mouse onto KAWS' own imagined creatures, oft with 'x'-ed out eyes or ultra-animated features. Nevertheless, KAWS also works frequently in neon and vivid pigment, calculation animation and depth to contemporary paintings filled with approachable imagination. In that location is mass entreatment to KAWS, who exhibits globally and most oftentimes in Asia, Europe and the Us.
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Source: https://www.phillips.com/detail/kaws/HK010321/46
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