Critical Review
Untitled (KAWS x Brooklyn Museum) is a signed screen print made by the critically acclaimed American artist and designer KAWS in 2019. Coming in an edition size of 250, the print was produced in conjunction with the Brooklyn Museum Family Party fundraiser in January 2019. In this print, KAWS fills a circle with an array of distinctive graphic shapes. The shapes are rendered in bright colours with green, pink, red and white dominating the print. The shapes are outlined in thick black lines, a characteristic feature of KAWS’ visual language.
Untitled (KAWS x Brooklyn Museum) can be seen alongside various other screen prints which were made for the museum fundraiser event. Each print is handmade and characterised by its unique composition of bold colours. The designs KAWS used in this collection are all derived from previous artworks made by KAWS. The designs are described as recycling ‘outtakes’ from previous screen prints which are then cut down, cropped and edited to make new artworks.
KAWS’ visual style can be traced back to his interest in and experimentation with graffiti and the artist is frequently compared to Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, two leading 20th century artists who emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s.
