Kids on KAWS
What is Art? Is everyone dead? Young people decide…
There are well-known artists, and then there are artists who are sensations. Brian Donnelly, aka KAWS, is one of the latter. His exhibition, “WHAT PARTY”—on view at the Brooklyn Museum through late September—has been consistently selling out its $25 tickets, even in the midst of a pandemic. (Hell, you can’t even visit the show’s gift shop without ponying up the entrance fee.)
Still, KAWS doesn’t tend to get much respect from the mainstream art world. “Like a diet of only celery, which is said to consume more calories in the chewing than it provides to digestion,” Peter Schjeldahl wrote recently in the New Yorker, “KAWS activates hallucinatory syndromes of spiritual starvation.”
We barely know what that means, but still: Ouch!
Sometimes you need a break from all of that pedigreed intellectualism. Since KAWS is known for appropriating child-friendly icons—like Sponge Bob Square Pants, or the Simpsons—we figured we’d ask some actual children what they thought.
Spoiler alert: They may not have riffed about “hallucinatory syndromes of spiritual starvation”… but these kids weren’t holding back.
Damon B. (age 6, in Hoboken, New Jersey) reflects on two KAWS paintings.
DAD: First of all, do you know what Art is?
DAMON: Yeah. Like drawing and painting, that kind of stuff.
DAD: Would you say this is art?
DAMON: I mean…Maybe? I don’t know. Kind of? Because the eyes look like it’s kinda art.
DAD: So the eyes look kinda ‘art’? Do you think it’s good art, bad art?
DAMON: A little bit bad.
DAD: What do you think is bad, and what’s good?
DAMON: The bad part is that they’re all picking up their heads…and dead. Which is weird. And the good part is that they’re sitting on the couch.
DAD: What would you do to improve the art?
DAMON: I would probably take away the part where they’re holding their heads. And without the Xs on their eyes.
DAD: Look closely. Do you see any shapes or objects that you recognize?DAMON: Well, this [part] kind of looks like a volcano. These kind of look like super long socks hanging down.
DAD: Do you see maybe there’s a bear outlined over there?
DAMON: Yeah, yeah.
DAD: What do you think of the colors?
DAMON: I really like them — the yellow and black.
DAD: Is there a story here, or just colors and shapes.
DAMON: It’s probably just colors and shapes.
DAD: Is this painting beautiful, or ugly?
DAMON: I mean it’s…(sigh)…kinda both.
Nadav and Itamar are 7 and 5, respectively, and live in Tel Aviv, Israel. Their mom is Adina, Lemonade’s Chief of Staff & VP Operations. Here, they share their thoughts on a KAWS sculpture and painting.
NADAV (age 7): I can see a person, holding a dead person.
MOM: Maybe it’s a husband holding a wife?
NADAV: But why’s the wife red? I think it’s blood.
MOM: How did she die? Is it a boy or a girl?
NADAV: It’s a boy. They have the same hair.
MOM: So the person that’s carrying him…why is he carrying him?
NADAV: I don’t know. I think it’s a bit disgusting.
MOM: Let’s try this one. What is happening here?
ITAMAR (age 5): An elephant, swimming!
NADAV: It’s not an elephant. It’s a person, of course. A person drowning.
MOM: Why did he go swimming in the night?
NADAV: I don’t think someone would go swimming in the night.
MOM: But look, you can see the moon.
NADAV: I know. Why does everyone have Xs on their eyes?
MOM: It’s art. The person who drew this wanted us to feel something when we see the Xs. What did they want us to feel?
NADAV: That he’s dead. Children from my class draw Xs on the eyes only when someone’s dead.
MOM: If he was drowning, wouldn’t he be waving his hands and looking for help? Maybe he’s just relaxing.
NADAV: I see he’s lifting up his hand…
MOM: Out of all the pictures we looked at, which one do you like the most?NADAV: There’s nothing that I like the most. They all look stupid.
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Looking for more on kids and creativity? Check out our deep dive into the album art of Raffi, our interview with children’s book illustrator Stephen Savage, and a few tips on parenting a creative child.
