The Brooklyn Rail

Declaring KAWS as the present-day version of Andy Warhol might be too grand a gesture. Still, the current show pairing the two artists together at Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum makes it clear that they share many similarities. Maybe their shared outsider-insider perspective of the art world binds the two artists together, a perspective that may stem from the fact that both grew up in industrial/manufacturing cities (Jersey City and Pittsburgh) that, at the time of their youth, were cities past their heyday and that were relatively close in distance yet culturally so far from the NYC art world that would become their playground in years to come. It could be their shared business savvy and uncanny ability to straddle the lines of pure art and commercial enterprise. Perhaps it is their acumen as trendsetters who went against the prevailing notions of what is considered high art in their respective times only to emerge victorious by exploring the interconnectivity and fluidity of modern visual culture. The central theme that this show highlights is both artists’ explorations of dark/morbid themes and death in their artworks, despite having work that is widely recognized and celebrated within pop culture, a space that is generally thought to be composed of content that is light and superficial.

On two floors, Patrick Moore, who curated the exhibition, made these arguments to significant effect.  Walking into the exhibition, you are greeted by two skulls from Warhol’s 1976 “Skulls” series, which explore memento mori and set the morbid tone of the show. These Warhol pieces set the stage for what one might consider the capstone images of the exhibition, the pairing of Warhol’s piece Ambulance Disaster (1964–65) with one of KAWS’s iconic “Companion” figures (2020) lying on the floor seemingly lifeless, with its arms, chest, and face firmly planted into the ground. In Ambulance Disaster, Warhol closely examines death through the lens of his fascination with the types of accidental disasters that populate the news. This specific image chronicles a disaster that occurred when two ambulances collided after rushing from the scene of an accident. The repetitive process of silk screening and doubling of the accident in the image desensitizes the viewer, creating an emotional distance from the actual event being portrayed.

The transience of life also permeates much of KAWS’s work, most visible in his use of Xs for eyes. The exhibition’s first floor comprises many works that draw connections between the work of KAWS and Warhol while centering this overarching theme of death and dark themes in both of the artists’ works. One portion of the first floor showcases their explorations of nostalgia and utilization of images from their childhoods that hold fond memories but are lost in time. This connection becomes especially clear through the pairing of KAWS’s exploration of Sesame Street characters with the various American cultural icons that Warhol used for his “Myth” series. One of Warhol’s flower paintings is included in this section to showcase the transitory nature of beauty. Another portion of the exhibition highlights the artists’ exploration of pain in their works, juxtaposing Warhol’s 1964 short film Blow Job with KAWS’s KAWSBob 1 & 2 (2007–08). In Blow Job, actor DeVeren Bookwalter writhes in what can be described as an ambiguous emotional state, somewhere between excruciating pain and ecstatic pleasure, the title the only clue to what is taking place. KAWSBob 1 & 2 explore the character of SpongeBob in what appears to be excruciating pain, but that pain is only showcased in close-ups of the face, mimicking Warhol’s screen tests.

The stars of the exhibition’s first floor are the works that look at the role advertising has played in the practices, trajectory, and lore of both artists. Warhol famously got his start as a graphic designer, creating fashion advertisements for top fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Similarly, KAWS gained his first notoriety through his experimentation with advertising. Coming from a graffiti background where a graffiti tagger always wants to claim the best and most noticeable piece of real estate for his artworks, KAWS began looking toward advertising billboards and incorporating his imagery into these advertisements. In this experimentation, KAWS developed a complex visual language by literally infiltrating and appropriating the languages and strategies of the advertising establishment and reinterpreting them as high art. A portion of the exhibition commemorates this special time in KAWS’s practice, when he routinely removed ads from bus stops, took them back to his studio to add his signature elements, and returned them to their commercial enclosures. At the Warhol, we see KAWS’s alterations of period advertising promotions for DKNY, Guess, and Nicole Miller, to name a few. The highlight of this section is two KAWS alterations of Chanel posters created by Warhol, both made in 2007. This pairing of KAWS and Warhol was unknowingly seventeen years in the making.

The exhibition’s second floor delves deeper into the intersection of art and commerce that both artists straddle throughout their oeuvres. Walking into the second-floor installation, you are greeted by 3D works by both KAWS and Warhol. Two sculptures of KAWS’s “Chum” character (2008, 2020), based on the iconic Michelin Man, stand at the entrance, almost as if they are guardians of this sacred space of capitalism. In the center of the room is a collection of Warhol’s Duchamp-inspired, readymade-esque replicas of boxes of Brillo soap pads, Heinz tomato ketchup, Del Monte peaches, and Campbell’s tomato juice. Warhol critiqued the idea of mass production, how consumers relate to products and brands, and the expectation of original ideas within art. With his “Package Painting” series, which can be seen to the right and left of Warhol’s readymades—one based around his Chum character and the other an exploration of iconic Simpsons characters—KAWS also studied consumerism, specifically packaging and its relation to the machine of capitalism. The second floor of the exhibition culminates in a series of paintings, sculptures, and installations related to KAWS’s recent commission with General Mills, which inserted his signature X-eyed characters into the packaging for some of America’s beloved cereal boxes, including Franken Berry, Frute Brute, Count Chocula, and Boo-Berry.

This KAWS + Warhol exhibition does an exceptional job of placing KAWS within the art historical canon next to artists who have broken the mold before him: Warhol, as well as Duchamp, Koons, etc. Conversely, seeing KAWS’s work side by side with Warhol’s makes it much easier to see the impact and relevance of Warhol’s artworks and legacy in the present day.