Beschreibung:

KAWSFollow PRESSURE PARADE signed and dated 'KAWS '11' on the reverse acrylic on canvas 183.3 x 183.1 cm (72 1/8 x 72 1/8 in.) Painted in 2011.
Provenance Honor Fraser, Los Angeles Private Collection (acquired from the above) Sotheby's, New York, 12 May 2016, lot 434 Private Collection, New York Private Collection, Manchester Catalogue Essay PRESSURE PARADE, with its block, artificial colours, bold use of line, stylisation and cropping of the composition to the point of abstraction, typifies KAWS’ acclaimed artistic practice. Rendered in acrylic on canvas and painted in 2011, the precisely delineated work stretches nearly two metres square, possessing a uniformity of colour and contrast that suggests technological creation. Bridging the gap between fine art and mass media imagery, the works of Brian Donnelly – better known by his alias KAWS – belong to a distinctive oeuvre that has come to be recognised all over the world. With roots in the street art of downtown Manhattan, KAWS’ sculptures and paintings have become synonymous with the world of high fashion, graphics and product design. Like the work of his Pop artist predecessors, the accessibility of KAWS’ work has established an international reputation for the artist, whose characteristically bright, graphic compositions have infiltrated the public consciousness, coming to be associated with celebrities from the likes of Kanye West to Pharrell Williams, as well as industry giants such as Nike. KAWS’ Pop Art influences have provided the Brooklyn-based artist with a new platform to present his works. Assuming the language of mass communication and exploiting the connection of artistic and commercial spheres, KAWS has relied on his own unique symbolism to transform the depiction of recognisable caricatures. Inspired by animation DVDs in the early part of his career, KAWS would watch cartoons, pausing them periodically to take close-up screenshots of characters. In the present work, KAWS’ imagery is derived from the American-Belgian television series The Smurfs. An abstracted blue smurf figure is surrounded by exploding white graphics in a way that is not immediately recognisable as a scene from the cartoon, but recalls the energetic animation of its source imagery. Belonging to a series of paintings coined by the artist as kurfs , this work typifies KAWS’ trademark style in which he re-contextualises commercially cherished characters. Similar to Roy Lichtenstein’s re-appropriation of female comic book characters in his series of Girl paintings created half a century earlier, KAWS takes the graphic of a smurf and elevates it to the status of fine art by rendering it in vibrant acrylic on canvas. The result is an image which establishes a connection to the viewer by appealing to the universal effects of pop culture, and the saturation of mass media imagery on contemporary society, themes perhaps even more relevant in today’s world than in post-war America. In his reduction of the smurf to simply colour and line, KAWS defines his own visual iconography, similar to Keith Haring’s block human figures, an artist who, like KAWS,,was influenced by the art of Manhattan’s streets. Influenced by the breadth of the Pop Art universe from New York-based artists like Haring and Lichtenstein to Japanese artists like Takashi Murakami KAWS’ trademark style has garnered him global acclaim and recognition in much the same way that these artists have elevated pop culture source imagery to re-appropriation in fine art forms. As Mónica Ramírez-Montagut aptly described of the artist’s subject matter, ‘For KAWS,,a source found in high art does not translate as a more valuable source than one from mass media’ (Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, ‘KAWS: Seeing You Seeing Yourself’ in Ian Luna and Lauren A. Gould, ed., KAWS , New York , 2010, p. 135). In a society increasingly governed by the prevalence of the mass media, KAWS is now at the forefront of an artistic trajectory that aims to redefine these sources and boundaries. Read More Artist Bio KAWS American • 1974 Follow To understand the work of KAWS is to understand his roots in the skateboard and