STREET MASTERS
BASQUIAT, HARING, SCHARF, KAWS
STREET MASTERS / BASQUIAT, HARING, SCHARF, KAWS
The Pop Art movement is at times misunderstood as being shaped purely by commercial and celebrity aesthetics driving themselves into the arch of art history, the trajectory of high art championed by museums and esteemed galleries. Complicating the movement, however, is a different kind of “popular” image — an image bubbling up from a space once untouched by capitalistic pursuits — the unsanctioned art of the street. While Warhol’s Soup Cans and Marilyns may be the go-to icons when the public thinks of Pop Art, his open embrace of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf alloyed the movement with a grit and grounded determination far less pronounced in the glossier side of Pop. That street-born authenticity and vivacity continues to this day as one of the most exciting veins that Pop has given to contemporary art.
KEITH HARING Untitled (Subway Drawing 1), c. 1985 Chalk on Paper mounted to Canvas 85 1/4 x 46 inches POR
KEITH HARING Untitled (Subway Drawing A&B), c. 1985 Chalk on Paper mounted to Canvas 43 x 41 1/2 inches each POR
KEITH HARING Icons (A) - Radiant Baby, 1990 Silkscreen with embossing 21 x 25 inches Edition of 250 POR
KENNY SCHARF Paradis Perdu, 2022 Archival Pigment Ink Print with Silkscreened High-Gloss Varnish and Diamond Dust 42 x 54 inches Edition of 40 POR
KEITH HARING Untitled (Cupman), 1989 Screenprint 30 x 20 3/4 inches Edition of 100 POR
This compelling lineage is at the heart of Hamilton-Selway’s current exhibition Street Masters. Through a dynamic grouping of artwork the gallery lays out an initial context for the triumph of street-trained artists, with Basquiat and Haring leading the way. Building on this, the show then demonstrates two modes in which these playful and rebellious motifs have transferred to the present moment, first through artists like Kenny Scharf who developed his style shoulder to shoulder with Harring in the 80s and continues to evolve in the new work he produces today, and secondly through a new generation of artists represented here by the best known among them, KAWS.
KAWS No One's Home, 2015 Screenprint 36 x 29 inches Edition of 250 POR
KAWS Stay Steady, 2015 Screenprint 36 x 29 inches Edition of 250 POR
Join us for this glimpse at the most celebrated artists whose talents graced the subway walls of New York long before they turned the art world on its head, and see for yourself how these masters refold the Warholesque glamor and vibrant color of Pop back into the immediacy of the street in every line and shape.
KEITH HARING Icons (B) - Barking Dog, 1989 Screenprint 30 x 20 3/4 inches Edition of 250 POR
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Flash in Naples,1982-87/2022 Hand pulled screenprints 40 x 40 inches Edition of 85 POR
"I don't think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it."
- Keith Haring
KAWS KAWS X Brooklyn Museum,2019 Unique screenprint on heavy stock paper 8 inch diameter Signed and dated POR
KAWS Untitled (Limited Edition KAWS x MOCAD),2019 Unique screenprint on heavy stock paper 10 x 7 7/8 inches Signed and dated POR
KAWS Physiological Diagram's, 1985-1986 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 inches each Authenticated POR
KEITH HARING Pyramid (gold), 1989 Silkscreen on anodized aluminum 40 1/2 x 57 inches Edition of 30 POR
KEITH HARING Pop Shop V (A-D), 1989 Silkscreen 13 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches each Edition of 200 POR
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT Phooey, 1982/2021 61 Color Screenprint on Saunders Waterford 425 gsm 13 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches each Edition of 60 POR