Kenny Scharf
Cosmic cartoon faces and customised junk, from the East Village of Haring and Basquiat.
Kenny Scharf was born in Los Angeles in 1958, studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and shared a loft with Keith Haring and, for a time, Jean-Michel Basquiat. His vocabulary comes from the Jetsons, the Flintstones and mid-century American futurism: grinning cosmic faces, blobs and planets in fluorescent colour. The Cosmic Caverns are entire rooms customised with black light, found objects and fluorescent paint; the Customized works apply the same treatment to televisions, telephones and household appliances. He has painted murals worldwide and continues to work in Los Angeles.
Unique paintings on canvas lead the market, with the 1980s work well ahead of later production and the large Jetsons and cosmic subjects the most sought. Customised objects raise practical questions: they incorporate obsolete consumer electronics, plastics that yellow and fluorescent pigments that fade badly under light, and none of that is straightforward to conserve. There is a substantial print output and a quantity of collaborative product and merchandise. Fluorescent and day-glo surfaces are the recurring condition issue and light history matters.
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