{"id":2137,"date":"2024-05-27T13:44:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T05:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=2137"},"modified":"2024-05-27T13:44:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T05:44:12","slug":"kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/","title":{"rendered":"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol<\/a>\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together. This unusual focus forms the subject of a new exhibition that recently opened at the\u00a0Andy Warhol Museum<\/a>\u00a0in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where 47 works by both artists are now on view.<\/p>\n

Loosely, the pair has been brought together the shed light on the darkness of their oeuvres. But KAWS and Warhol share commonalities beyond that: works by both have infiltrated the public consciousness, and collaboration with big brands is also responsible for some of their art.<\/p>\n

ARTnews<\/em>\u00a0recently spoke with KAWS about the exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum, his thoughts on selling out, and his favorite pieces by Warhol. This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n

ARTnews: The new show at the Warhol Museum features works from his \u201cDeath and Disaster\u201d series, silkscreened paintings from the 1960s that feature appropriated pictures of car crashes and other violent imagery that Warhol repeated many times over. What relation does your work have to those paintings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KAWS:\u00a0<\/strong>The \u201cdarker themes\u201d angle was something that [outgoing Warhol Museum director] Patrick Moore really wanted to explore. It\u2019s funny how putting pieces in proximity to each other can really kind of shift the context.\u00a0Companion\u00a0<\/em>(2020) was a sculpture I created thinking that it was just really representative of that year and exhaustion. But when placed under the Warhol\u2019s\u00a0Ambulance Disaster<\/em>\u00a0(1963\u201364), it suddenly feels much more tragic.<\/p>\n

Could you expand on that a little bit in terms of how it feels tragic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ambulance Disaster<\/em>\u00a0is a much more horrific image. For me, doing this show was a great way to explore even further an artist that I\u2019ve always appreciated. And I felt like there were so many things that Warhol had done that kind of opened doorways for my thinking. So, I wouldn\u2019t pass it up the opportunity to do this show.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Bryan<\/div>\n<\/div>
Andy Warhol\u2019s\u00a0Ambulance Disaster\u00a0<\/em>(1963-1964) above KAWS\u00a0Companion\u00a0<\/em>(2020) at The Andy Warhol Museum. Photo by Bryan Conley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Warhol expanded the way people thought about the business of art and the the notion of selling out. But he also faced a negativity about that during his lifetime, especially because he did so with the explicit goal of making money. What do you make of<\/strong>\u00a0the allegations that Warhol unashamedly sold out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mean, I don\u2019t really think about the term \u201cselling out.\u201d I focus on what I want or don\u2019t want to make, and what outlets I can explore. There\u2019s tons of opportunities these days to get the work out in ways that just aren\u2019t possible in a traditional gallery setting, if you were just doing painting and sculpture. I\u2019ve always been inclined to make products. I\u2019ve always thought about the stuff that came to me through objects, through products, when I was younger, whether learning about artists through skate graphics, through magazines, or through T-shirt graphics. It all felt very natural to me. I don\u2019t see any reason to deprive myself from having opportunities to make the stuff that I want to make.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve previously said you\u2019ve turned down a lot of opportunities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to do anything that I\u2019m not going to be able to stand by. Yeah, there are a lot of projects that we\u2019re presented with, but it\u2019s just not interesting, often. If I feel like it\u2019s not additive, I\u2019ve just tried to stay away from it.<\/p>\n

Warhol was making a lot of art in response to ads, TV shows, and news photography, all at a time when this was somewhat taboo in the art world. Nowadays, it\u2019s far less the case.\u00a0What is your relationship to mass media?\u00a0What do you think about that shift among artists about making work in response to mass media?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My interested in this started in the \u201990s, when I was doing graffiti. Then I transitioned to painting over billboards. I started to think a lot about the parallels between graffiti and advertising, and that need for communication.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see these things as taboo. I feel like things have shifted a lot. And I think it\u2019s because a lot of artists are just more open-minded these days to working with corporations and even institutions. The landscape has changed so much, and artists are looking to collaborate with different corporations. whether it\u2019s\u00a0Dior sponsoring a show<\/a>\u00a0or something of that sort. Those opportunities are out there, and they can be done in good ways. And if you can find that right balance, I think it\u2019s worth exploring.<\/p>\n

When it comes to remixing pop culture, what aspects of Warhol\u2019s process do you draw on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think I benefited from his openness to different mediums, whether it\u2019s film or fashion. The Warhol Museum had a show years ago [in 1997] called \u201cThe Warhol Look.\u201d It focused on all the collaborative dresses that he printed and the different sort of works in that realm. I feel like I\u2019m in a very different time, in 2024, with social media and everything. I tried to be aware of: how I can create work that could disseminate in the right ways for today?<\/p>\n

Are there specific pieces of Warhol\u2019s that really stand out<\/strong>\u00a0to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first pairing we did for the exhibition was\u00a0Ambulance Disaster<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Companion\u00a0<\/em>[2020]. Then we kind of built the show out from around that. I\u2019ve always been interested are the toy package paintings that he did\u2014just the scale and intimacy of them. Cming off of all his previous work, to stop and focus on a series like that: I just thought it was very clever.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a series of paintings I did, which are close-ups of SpongeBob faces. And we paired it with the film\u00a0Blow Job<\/a><\/em>\u00a0[1964]. I thought it was important have this humor in the exhibition, and also to bring his movie work into the show.<\/p>\n

If there was one work of Warhol\u2019s that you could have on loan from the Warhol Museum to your home, which one would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a painting of a volcano on canvas [Vesuvius<\/em>, from 1985]. It\u2019s just black ink on white canvas\u2014it\u2019s a startling image that I love. I didn\u2019t put it in the show, but I do always love seeing when I visit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source\uff1ahttps:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together. This unusual focus forms the subject of a new exhibition that recently opened at the\u00a0Andy Warhol Museum\u00a0in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where 47 works by both artists are now on view. Loosely, the pair has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13,7,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artist","8":"category-auction","9":"category-events","10":"category-gallery","11":"category-latest-news"},"yoast_head":"\nKAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh - Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-27T05:44:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/KAWS-Discusses-His-Connections-to-Andy-Warhol-and-Selling-Out_-www.artnews.com_.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"762\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"570\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/\",\"name\":\"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh - Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-27T05:44:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-27T05:44:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\"},\"description\":\"There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\",\"name\":\"Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"description\":\"Atelier Auction\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\",\"name\":\"Chloe Nicholls\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chloe Nicholls\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh - Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh - Investable Art Auctioneer","og_description":"There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/","og_site_name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","article_published_time":"2024-05-27T05:44:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":762,"height":570,"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/KAWS-Discusses-His-Connections-to-Andy-Warhol-and-Selling-Out_-www.artnews.com_.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chloe Nicholls","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chloe Nicholls","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/","name":"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh - Investable Art Auctioneer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-05-27T05:44:12+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-27T05:44:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744"},"description":"There are no shortage of exhibitions dealing with\u00a0KAWS\u00a0and\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0individually, but there haven\u2019t been many that contend with the two artists together.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/artist\/kaws-and-andy-warhol-come-together-at-last-for-a-museum-show-in-pittsburgh\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"KAWS and Andy Warhol Come Together at Last for a Museum Show in Pittsburgh"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/","name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"Atelier Auction","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744","name":"Chloe Nicholls","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chloe Nicholls"},"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2139,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions\/2139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}