KAWS Discusses His Connections to Andy Warhol and Promoting Out

There are not any scarcity of exhibitions coping with KAWS and Andy Warhol individually, however there haven’t been many who take care of the 2 artists collectively. This uncommon focus varieties the topic of a brand new exhibition that lately opened on the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place 47 works by each artists are actually on view.

Loosely, the pair has been introduced collectively the make clear the darkness of their oeuvres. However KAWS and Warhol share commonalities past that: works by each have infiltrated the general public consciousness, and collaboration with huge manufacturers can also be liable for a few of their artwork.

ARTnews lately spoke with KAWS concerning the exhibition on the Andy Warhol Museum, his ideas on promoting out, and his favourite items by Warhol. This interview has been edited and condensed.

ARTnews: The brand new present on the Warhol Museum options works from his “Dying and Catastrophe” collection, silkscreened work from the Nineteen Sixties that function appropriated footage of automobile crashes and different violent imagery that Warhol repeated many instances over. What relation does your work need to these work?

KAWS: The “darker themes” angle was one thing that [outgoing Warhol Museum director] Patrick Moore actually wished to discover. It’s humorous how placing items in proximity to one another can actually form of shift the context. Companion (2020) was a sculpture I created pondering that it was simply actually consultant of that yr and exhaustion. However when positioned below the Warhol’s Ambulance Catastrophe (1963–64), it instantly feels way more tragic.

May you broaden on that a bit of bit when it comes to the way it feels tragic?

Ambulance Catastrophe is a way more horrific picture. For me, doing this present was a good way to discover even additional an artist that I’ve at all times appreciated. And I felt like there have been so many issues that Warhol had carried out that form of opened doorways for my pondering. So, I wouldn’t go it up the chance to do that present.

Warhol expanded the way in which folks thought concerning the enterprise of artwork and the the notion of promoting out. However he additionally confronted a negativity about that in his lifetime, particularly as a result of he did so with the express aim of creating wealth. What do you make of the allegations that Warhol unashamedly offered out?

I imply, I don’t actually take into consideration the time period “promoting out.” I concentrate on what I need or don’t need to make, and what shops I can discover. There’s tons of alternatives today to get the work out in ways in which simply aren’t potential in a standard gallery setting, in case you had been simply doing portray and sculpture. I’ve at all times been inclined to make merchandise. I’ve at all times thought concerning the stuff that got here to me by way of objects, by way of merchandise, once I was youthful, whether or not studying about artists by way of skate graphics, by way of magazines, or by way of T-shirt graphics. All of it felt very pure to me. I don’t see any motive to deprive myself from having alternatives to make the stuff that I need to make.

You’ve beforehand stated you’ve turned down numerous alternatives.

I don’t need to do something that I’m not going to have the ability to stand by. Yeah, there are numerous tasks that we’re offered with, nevertheless it’s simply not fascinating, typically. If I really feel prefer it’s not additive, I’ve simply tried to avoid it.

Warhol was making numerous artwork in response to adverts, TV reveals, and information images, all at a time when this was considerably taboo within the artwork world. These days, it’s far much less the case. What’s your relationship to mass media? What do you consider that shift amongst artists about making work in response to mass media?

My on this began within the ’90s, once I was doing graffiti. Then I transitioned to portray over billboards. I began to suppose loads concerning the parallels between graffiti and promoting, and that want for communication.

I don’t see these items as taboo. I really feel like issues have shifted loads. And I feel it’s as a result of numerous artists are simply extra open-minded today to working with companies and even establishments. The panorama has modified a lot, and artists need to collaborate with totally different companies. whether or not it’s Dior sponsoring a present or one thing of that kind. These alternatives are on the market, and they are often carried out in good methods. And if you could find that proper stability, I feel it’s value exploring.

In relation to remixing popular culture, what elements of Warhol’s course of do you draw on?

I feel I benefited from his openness to totally different mediums, whether or not it’s movie or trend. The Warhol Museum had a present years in the past [in 1997] known as “The Warhol Look.” It centered on all of the collaborative clothes that he printed and the totally different form of works in that realm. I really feel like I’m in a really totally different time, in 2024, with social media and all the things. I attempted to pay attention to: how I can create work that might disseminate in the correct methods for right this moment?

Are there particular items of Warhol’s that actually stand out to you?

The primary pairing we did for the exhibition was Ambulance Catastrophe and Companion [2020]. Then we form of constructed the present out from round that. I’ve at all times been are the toy package deal work that he did—simply the dimensions and intimacy of them. Cming off of all his earlier work, to cease and concentrate on a collection like that: I simply thought it was very intelligent.

There’s a collection of work I did, that are close-ups of SpongeBob faces. And we paired it with the movie Blow Job [1964]. I assumed it was necessary have this humor within the exhibition, and in addition to deliver his film work into the present.

If there was one work of Warhol’s that you can have on mortgage from the Warhol Museum to your own home, which one would it not be?

There’s a portray of a volcano on canvas [Vesuvius, from 1985]. It’s simply black ink on white canvas—it’s a startling picture that I like. I didn’t put it within the present, however I do at all times love seeing once I go to.